Paul Krugman is firing back hard at Jeb Bush's remarks before a Koch Brothers-related group that he wants to “phase out” Medicare.
On his blog, the Times columnist argues:
Fact-checking organizations please note, by the way. The next time Democrats say that Republicans want to destroy Medicare, and Republicans start screaming that this is a lie, remember that when talking to their own people like Jeb themselves call what they’re proposing a plan to, yes, end Medicare.
Ironically, he notes, the idea behind vouchers -- that they would limit spending -- has never been less necessary. It is Obamacare which has limited the explosion of health-care costs.
But we’re now five years into the attempt to control costs that way — and what we’ve seen is a spectacular slowdown in the growth of health costs, with the historical upward trend in Medicare costs, in particular, brought to a complete standstill. How much credit should go to the ACA? Nobody really knows. But the whole premise behind voucherization has never looked worse, and the case that universal health insurance is affordable has never looked better.
It’s amazing, isn’t it? Who could have imagined that conservatives would keep proposing the exact same policy despite strong evidence that they were wrong about the facts? Oh, wait.
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