"Democrats" are struggling to defend Obamacare's $700 billion-plus cuts to Medicare, according to Ed Schultz. But given the timing of his complaint, it was obvious Schultz was including MSNBC colleague Rachel Maddow in the mix.
Here's what Schultz said on his radio show Monday, one day after Maddow's shellacking by National Review editor Rich Lowry on "Meet the Press." NewsBuster Noel Sheppard quickly posted on the exchange and it went viral from there (audio) --
Now I want to answer this one huge bullet point that's been out there all weekend long that Democrats seem to have a hard time talking about. And that is, President Obama and the Democrats have cut $750 billion in Medicare and, to help pay for Obamacare. Let me explain this. The information technology system in the delivery system of the way we're going to do Medicare is going to be a huge savings to the entire health care system! That's it in a nutshell. The way we deliver Medicare to the elderly in this country is going to change but it's not going to reduce the benefits. It's not going to do that. In fact, seniors are already seeing the benefits of Obamacare when it comes to prescription drug reimbursement.
The next thing is this -- the money that they are shifting is going to go into preventive care, which is going to give us better outcomes. The money that they are shifting because of the way their delivery system is going to be is going to create subsidies and money for people to go out and buy insurance in the exchanges, which is going to cover 30 million more people in America! Now all of this has been passed. What do the Republicans have on the table? Nothing other than to say that they want to repeal it. He (Paul Ryan) is the repeal enforcer. That's what this guy is!
Get the impression that Schultz is parroting what he's been told and has no idea what he's talking about? Since his criticism was directed at unnamed "Democrats," Schultz was probably also alluding to DNC chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz's testy interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer.
As for Maddow, her argument with Lowry was reminiscent of her run-in with Reason editor Nick Gillespie on "Real Time with Bill Maher" in June. On the losing end of that exchange too, Maddow fell back on the odd defense, "You don't even know me." Several minutes later, Maddow did it again, telling Gillepsie that "you don't know anything about me." This from a woman who has disgorged voluminous opinions over the airwaves during the last eight years, via Twitter, a book she published this year, and in frequent appearances on other television shows. And through all of it, Maddow has hardly been shy about revealing details of her personal life.
On Sunday when cornered by Lowry, Maddow responded, "I'm not running for president," followed by "I'm not running for anything," stated twice. This is Maddow's new prerequisite to opine in public, one that never stopped her before.
