Jeb Bush Says Most People Understand The Need To Get Rid Of Medicare — Most People Disagree
It's not nearly as inflammatory as one of the Donald's Trumpisms, but Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush's latest remarks, made at an New Hampshire event held Wednesday night (and funded by the Americans For Prosperity -- a Koch Brothers-backed group) may be just as out of touch with reality.
While discussing the need to ensure that current Medicare recipients receive the aid they need, Bush also claimed that we need to "figure out a way to phase out [Medicare] for others and move to a new system that allows them to have something – because they’re not going to have anything.”
Perpetually left unsaid from the familiar conservative talking point is what such a system would look like, though judging from previous proposed Republican budgets, it's likely one that would result in significantly worse health care outcomes for those dependent on it; now estimated to be over 50 million disabled and elderly Americans.
As commentators like Steve Benen have noted, Bush's comments come at a time when Medicare's financial stability has been the sturdiest it's been for quite some time, thanks in no small part to the Affordable Care Act.
More baffling though is Bush's belief that Americans are hungry for a radical overhaul of Medicare. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll released just this past week, in anticipation of the program's 50-year anniversary, 77 percent of Americans, counting both sides of the political spectrum, felt that Medicare was very important to them. A similar percentage felt that there would need to be minor changes made in order to secure its future solvency, but that's hardly controversial.
As reported by Politico Thursday, Bush faced criticism over his words from an elderly woman at a town hall meeting held today. In his response to reporters afterward, he remarked that the whole incident was "ridiculous" and that people "need to have a grown-up conversation about these issues."
Ahem.