In his anti-Paul Ryan speech last week, President Obama accused the congressman of seeking to make “kids with disabilities. . . . fend for themselves.” What’s the theory here? That people are so sympathetic to disabled kids that using them to attack the plan will change public opinion, but so unsympathetic that they’ll be the first on the chopping block when state governments make Medicaid-budgeting decisions?
(Note, incidentally, how pathetic the Democratic governors sound in this letter against the Ryan plan for Medicaid, which would “leave states with an untenable choice between increasing taxes, cutting other state programs, or cutting eligibility, benefits, or provider payments.” God forbid states should have to make choices in budgeting! Better to pretend that federal money falls out of the sky.)
As Michael Crowley notes, liberals have rational grounds to reject the Ryan plan. Of course they prefer an alternative with more taxes and more spending. But we’re still, mostly, in the cheap-shot and weak-logic stage of this debate.