Not only is Republican Paul Ryan’s Medicare privatization plan using basically the same general premium-supported exchange design that Obama’s health care revision does for the uninsured under 65, but both Ryan’s budget and “Obamacare” are nearly totally reliant on almost the same pathetic accounting trick of using poorly indexed caps on federal health care spending in the distant future to produce the bulk of their supposed deficit reductions.

I would love if the entire Democratic establishment could unequivocally beat up on Ryan and the rest of the Republicans for promoting such a horrible plan. Unfortunately, this task has become monumentally more difficult in the last year because President Obama, Congressional Democrats, and the bulk of “liberal” pundits endorsed the new health care law, all claiming profusely what an amazing idea it is to use sliding scale premium support payments to provide individuals with insurance on private exchanges.