I'll have more to say about the president's speech later in the week, when I have more time. For the moment let's just say that it was a remarkable speech, an affirmation of what liberals believe and why we believe it, and why his course of action is more sound and plausible than the fairy tale that Paul Ryan offers.
And this, which occurred to me earlier when reading more about the Ryan proposal. Ryan exempted current Medicare recipients, and those within 10 years of joining Medicare, from his Medicare-destruction plan, because seniors vote and seniors love Medicare, and he didn't want to turn that bloc against him and his kind. What he fails to understand--what he can't understand because he and his ilk are not wired this way--is that seniors don't just like Medicare because it helps them. They like it because it's the right thing to do, not just for them but for every American coming along who will otherwise be unable to afford comprehensive health care. Seniors want to know that future Americans will have the dignity of good health and decent treatment for generations to come. Ryan can't imagine anyone caring about other people--he is only out to help himself and his rich friends grow even richer. That's what his entire "budget" document is about--redistributing the nation's wealth from those who have little to those who already have so much.
Fortunately for us, there are only so many Paul Ryans around.
Here's a choice quote from the speech: one of many.
"Part of this American belief that we are all connected also expresses itself in a conviction that each one of us deserves some basic measure of security. We recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, hard times or bad luck, a crippling illness or a layoff, may strike any one of us. 'There but for the grace of God go I,' we say to ourselves, and so we contribute to programs like Medicare and Social Security, which guarantee us health care and a measure of basic income after a lifetime of hard work; unemployment insurance, which protects us against unexpected job loss; and Medicaid, which provides care for millions of seniors in nursing homes, poor children, and those with disabilities. We are a better country because of these commitments. I'll go further – we would not be a great country without those commitments."
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