Krauthammer Scolds 'Inside Washington' Host for Calling GOP 'Mediscare' Letter Hypocritical

"Inside Washington" host Gordon Peterson on Friday joined the ranks of liberal media members claiming Republican calls for Democrats to stop saying the GOP is trying to destroy Medicare is hypocritical due to their support for Congressman Paul Ryan's (R-Wisc.) budget proposal.

When he got his chance to address this absurdity, syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer marvelously set the record straight (video follows with transcript and commentary):

GORDON PETERSON, HOST: Okay, the Medicare problem and the debt ceiling.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPRESENTATIVE ALAN NUNNELEE (R-MISSISSIPPI): If we follow the traditional model in this town, every side retreats to the four corners of the room and begins to scream at one another. And while we are doing that, the meter is running.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PETERSON: That’s freshman Republican Congressman Alan Nunnelee in a campaign ad last year as he ran against the incumbent Democrat. Nunnelee said, and I quote, "I will honor the greatest generation by always protecting Social Security and Medicare." Then he came to Washington, he was confronted by political reality. He is one of 42 House Republican freshmen who wrote a letter to President Obama this week urging him to get the Democrats to abandon "Mediscare” tactics. Evan, can you say something to this Congressman to ease his pain?

(Laughter from NPR’s Nina Totenberg.)

That was how Peterson began this segment. Moments later, he brought Krauthammer into the discussion:

PETERSON: Well, Steny Hoyer, House Minority Whip, Democrat of course, says Republican freshmen appear to be abandoning their support for Medicare overhaul. Is that true Charles?

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: It is, but I just want to make…

PETERSON: It is true?

KRAUTHAMMER: I just want to make a comment on what this is our weekly Republican hypocrisy segment about that Congressman. He’s perfectly consistent to say he ran to preserve Medicare and Social Security and that he is adopting the Ryan approach, the Ryan plan, because that is the only way we’re going to have Social Security or Medicare in the future. If Democrats are going to argue that staying with the current system is a way to preserve it, that’s completely ridiculous. Everybody who looks at any of the numbers knows. It have to be, both of them have to be changed in a fundamental way.

Now, let's return to Steny Hoyer. I’m sorry. I was distracted and I may, I mean, with the Republican hypocrisy segment.

Indeed.

It was announced Friday that Medicare will go bankrupt in 2024; Social Security - 2036. The Washington Times reported Friday that Social Security will now run a deficit every year until then.

With this in mind, doing nothing to reform these programs assures their doom.

Contrary to what the pathetically liberal and mathematically-challenged press have been saying since Ryan's budget was first proposed, it does not kill Medicare. It instead preserves it by making it more financially viable in the future.

With this mind, Republicans that ran on saving Medicare in 2010 who now support the Ryan plan are indeed keeping their campaign pledges.

Unfortunately, you could talk to you're blue in the face trying to make this point to liberals like Peterson and Totenberg and you'd get nowhere.

I'm not sure how Charles does it every week.