Cutting Medicare in any year is a politically perilous task. Doing so in a presidential election year by an historically unpopular president displays a trust in the tribal narratives designed to override voter intelligence. Partisans evidently think voters will never believe that President Joe Biden would dare cut Medicare. However, to the shock of many, rates were cut in the popular Medicare Advantage program as the Biden administration finalized its latest budget.
During the 2012 campaign season, a man who looked a lot like then-Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) was featured in a TV ad wheeling an elderly woman through a park as America the Beautiful played over the sounds of chirping birds. Ryan, who was the vice-presidential candidate for the GOP in 2012, then dumped poor grandma out of her wheelchair and over a cliff as viewers were directed to call their representatives and tell them…
