The Duplicitous John Ellis Bush

If you're going to say this about Medicare, at least you want to say it at an event sponsored by the Koch Brothers' Americans for Prosperity (video below), whose attendees will always be able to pay for whatever health care they want. So on Wednesday, John Ellis Bush argued

The left needs to join the conversation, but they haven’t. I mean, when [Rep. Paul Ryan] came up with, one of his proposals as it relates to Medicare, the first thing I saw was a TV ad of a guy that looked just like Paul Ryan … that was pushing an elderly person off the cliff in a wheelchair. That’s their response.

And I think we need to be vigilant about this and persuade people that our, when your volunteers go door to door, and they talk to people, people understand this. They know, and I think a lot of people recognize that we need to make sure we fulfill the commitment to people that have already received the benefits, that are receiving the benefits. But that we need to figure out a way to phase out this program for others and move to a new system that allows them to have something – because they’re not going to have anything.








Though the venue was favorable, the timing wasn't. Claiming "they're not going to have anything" would have worked better ten years ago when (as the graphs below from Mother Jones indicate) "spending projected to increase indefinitely, rising to 13 percent of gross domestic product." This year's projection has medicare spending- primarily because of cost containment in the Affordable Care Act- projected to slow down by 2040 and constitute only 6% of GDP by 2090.

Hey, anyone can be deceptive once in awhile. But in New Hampshire the next day (video below), Bush did it again, contending "we have a Medicare program that’s not going to be around 30 years from now in form that is.” (And of course, he employed the "entitlements" dodge.) He did not say that it appears it will be in better form.









People don't understand the elderly must be cut off at the knees. This is par for the course for John Ellis Bush, even more out of touch than his father was, and as deceitful, if that's possible. Joan Walsh explains

Jeb Bush was quick to denounce Donald Trump after the reality show host-turned-presidential candidate made his ugly claim that Sen. John McCain was “not a war hero” last weekend. “Enough with the slanderous attacks. @SenJohnMcCain and all our veterans – particularly POWs have earned our respect and admiration,” he tweeted Saturday.

But journalists quickly saw a problem for Bush: he had signed on to a similar attack on a decorated war hero: 2004 Democratic Presidential nominee John Kerry, when he was running against Jeb’s brother George. Unbelievably, Bush reiterated his support for those ugly attacks on Kerry Tuesday afternoon in South Carolina.

To recap: Bush backed the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth’s shameful attacks on Kerry, writing a letter to the group’s founder, Col. Bud Day, thanking him and the “other Swifties” for their “support of my brother in his re-election.” It went on: “I simply cannot express in words how much I value their willingness to stand up against John Kerry.” That “willingness,” of course, involved claiming Kerry lied about the military service that won him the Purple Heart.

You might think Bush would feel a twinge of self- consciousness, in the wake of the loud, strong, nationwide bipartisan condemnation of Trump. But you’d be wrong. Bush repeated his support of the Swift Vote Vets when asked about it in Spartanburg Tuesday afternoon.

“[Day] won every award possible,” Bush said.  “He served in three wars, and if he says that there was a problem [with Kerry’s service], I believe him. He’s a great Floridian and a great American and so I wrote him a note thanking him for his service. Not gonna change my beliefs about that at all."

Not gonna. John Ellis is such a son of privilege he repeats the pet phrase of George Herbert Walker.  Next up: "it wouldn't be prudent?"

Steve Benen remarks "Remember, Jeb Bush is the ostensible moderate candidate in the massive GOP presidential field. It says something important about Republican politics in 2015 when the most mainstream candidate is also the candidate who wants to scrap Medicare altogether."

John Ellis Bush may be "the most mainstream candidate," for he is the guy the Establishment media is determined to convince us would be only a somewhat more telegenic, bilingual version of Bush 41. However, he is not the most moderate candidate. He has no sense of introspection and as at least war hero John Kerry is learning, John Ellis has no sense of shame or decency.






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