Like Medicare? Not for You, Then

Medicare for All (55 and over)!?

Senate Democrats are discussing the idea of expanding Medicare by lowering the age at which the elderly could enter the government-run insurance program, Democratic sources on the Hill tell the Huffington Post.

The proposal would lower the age of eligibility for Medicare from 65 to 55, though an age limit of 60 has also been suggested. Crucial details -- such as the timing of the implementation of such a reform -- were not provided due to the sensitivity and ongoing nature of the deliberations. A high-ranking Democratic source off the Hill confirmed that such discussions are taking place.

Of course, as Atrios implies, this is just a strategy to shut up the "DF hippies" who think senators and congressman ought to go through life without scamming money from the drug manufacturers and health insurers. How naive that is!

So, Digby's amended statement makes sense to us. Medicare for all 55 and over --

is a terrible idea that only a centrist, moderate, corporate lackey, right wing teabagging villager could love and I will fight it with my last breath! Betrayal!

Lowering it year by year until it reaches everyone would be even worse. The reason, of course, is that if we said we liked it, Blue Dog Crooks like Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, and that thorough-going idiot, Kent Conrad of North Dakota, would jerk it away immediately.