Is Newtie Gangrene actually running for president this time instead of pretending he is as a way of boosting his new book or his lecture fees (which has always before turned out to be his real agenda)? Seems it may be so given that yesterday he backed off his long-term support for privatising Medicare and attacked the House Pubs' plan as "too radical".
Mr. Gingrich, the former speaker of the House who led a conservative resurgence in the 1990s, said the Republican Medicare plan was “too big a jump” for Americans and compared it to the health care overhaul championed by President Obama.
“I’m against Obamacare, which is imposing radical change, and I would be against a conservative imposing radical change,” Mr. Gingrich said on the NBC program “Meet the Press.”
“I don’t think right-wing social engineering is any more desirable than left-wing social engineering,” he said. “I don’t think imposing radical change from the right or the left is a very good way for a free society to operate.”
Leaving aside for the moment that the Great Thinker of the modcon movement has repeatedly proved he has no idea at all how free societies operate, in light of his past beliefs his stance would seem to make sense only if he is actually positioning himself to run as a "centrist". As far as the Village is concerned, I suppose, he may be a "centrist". After all, he believes we should humanely send seniors out on ice flows where we won't have to watch them die rather than execute them in the town square, which is what passes for centrism in the corporate press.
Unfortunately, the real center is way to the left of Gangrene and only slightly to the right of socialism. Take, oh, I don't know, healthcare par example.
After facing waves of protests in public meetings after introducing the Medicare proposal in early April, House Republicans have begun signaling that they are prepared to shelve it, at least for now.
In leveling criticism at the Republican Medicare proposal, Mr. Gingrich appeared to be acknowledging the political difficulties and risk of abruptly changing a highly popular entitlement program.
“I think we need a national conversation to get to a better Medicare solution for seniors,” Mr. Gingrich said, suggesting that any Medicare overhaul would have to include a system in which beneficiaries voluntarily opt out of the program.
Newtie may want to have a "conversation" but in fact the rest of us have already had it and decided years ago what we want. Polls have been running steadily 70-80% in favor of a national health system like Canada's for nearly 10 years, not that Newtie has any intention of acknowledging that. I mean, how do you have a "conversation" with someone who starts by saying that all options except the one he favors are off the table? That's not a conversation, Newt, that's strong-arm intimidation.
Like I said, he doesn't really know anything about how a free society operates.
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