Follow Up On Claim Obama Wants to Destroy Medicare

The WP Fact Checker Gets It Right

In earlier posts The Dismal Political Economist showed the scenario of a bankrupt Medicare program which according to some Conservatives is the secret plan of President Obama. 

“While we've been seeing the liberals in the last few weeks trying to scare Americans about Medicare, and especially senior citizens, what's been ignored is President Obama's plan for senior citizens regarding Medicare. … And do you know what the president's plan is? This hasn't been talked about very much. The president's plan for senior citizens is Obamacare. We all think for our senior citizens that somehow Medicare is going to go on. And I think very likely -- and I'm speculating -- I think very likely what the president intends is that Medicare will go broke, and then ultimately that answer will be Obamacare for senior citizens.”

--Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), June 17, 2011

Now the Washington Post Fact Checker has entered the discussion, and gives four pinocchio’s  to the claim.  Here is the conclusion

The Pinocchio Test

 Are you confused? We’re totally befuddled.

It initially was hard to tell whether Bachmann’s rhetoric in the speech just ran amok or this was a point she wanted to make. But then she repeated the notion that Obama wanted to replace Medicare with “Obamacare” in her interview with CNN. There is no evidence for this and it is completely nonsensical. For a member of Congress, she really should know the basics of government-funded health care programs.

There is also  facts, which do not fit with the conspiracy, that Medicare cannot really go bankrupt.

Now if the regular news, you know, the ones supposed to be doing the actual reporting,  would just pick up on stories like this The Dismal Political Economist would have restored faith in the media, and be able to go do other things rather than having to debunk nonsense.  Based on the current state of the news reporting he is not encouraged.