David Axelrod, Pots, and Kettles
Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe this morning, and repeated the old tropes that Obamacare “plowed [money] back into Medicare,” and that “Medicare’s length of life has been extended” due to Obamacare. We’ve previously fact-checked all of these statements here. But what caught us as interesting was this comment:
There’s an awful lot of demagoguery out there. And in that environment, it’s very hard to have a serious discussion about issues like that.
It is entirely true that there is an awful lot of demagoguery about Medicare and entitlements out there. The problem for Mr. Axelrod is that most of it comes from Democrats:
- As one House Member put it, if the President had proposed a true restructuring of our unsustainable entitlements, that would “cancel out any bludgeoning that Democrats might give the Republicans over Medicare and Medicaid.”
- The Washington Post’s liberal Plum Line reported last year that Senate Democrats don’t want to pass Medicare reform because it would be “giving away the biggest [political] advantage” Democrats have had “in some time.”
- Last November, Rep. Steve Israel, Chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, in an interview with the Post “declined to say whether a [deficit] agreement to cut entitlements might have hindered his political strategy.” In other words, Democrats WANTED the supercommittee to fail – so that they could resume their “Mediscare” political attack ads against Republicans.
If Mr. Axelrod wants to criticize the members of his own party for using Medicare as a political cudgel, we’re all ears. But unless and until that happens, if the Obama campaign wants to complain about Medicare demagoguery, they might be wise to first look in the mirror.