Schooling Betsy

From The Atlantic:

U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos faced an unwelcome reception Wednesday as she delivered the commencement speech at Bethune-Cookman University, a historically black college in Daytona Beach, Florida. As the university’s president, Edison Jackson, began to award DeVos an honorary degree, many students in the crowd started to boo, while faculty applauded. A mere seconds after DeVos began speaking, the room erupted in shouts. A number of students turned their backs on the speaker, who attempted to elevate her voice above the crowd’s for the majority of her time on stage.

Original DVD cover

Fun With Dickin’ Jane

From THINK PROGRESS:

Republicans have spent this week trying to downplay the notion that Democrat Kathy
Hochul’s upset victory in this week’s special election in New York’s 26th Congressional District was a referendum on the Medicare-ending Republican budget. First, they blamed Tea Party candidate Jack Davis for splitting the conservative vote, but as The New York Times’ Nate Silver, Slate’s Dave Wiegel, and others noted, the math shows it’s highly unlikely that Republican Jane Corwin would have won even without Davis.

Original movie poster

They’re Munstrous!

From Salon:

During a rare public appearance in Houston Wednesday, Dick Cheney expressed his feelings about Paul Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman whose budget blueprint — which calls for turning Medicare into a voucher program — has become a lightning rod for controversy.

“I worship the ground the Paul Ryan walks on,” said the former vice president, Politico noted via the Houston Chronicle.

Original image

Radical Engineering of an Apology

From POLITICAL HOTSHEET at CBS NEWS:

Newt Gingrich apologized on Tuesday to Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) for calling his Medicare plan “radical” and “right-wing engineering.”

Gingrich, who announced his presidential candidacy just last week, has come under fire in recent days for a series of missteps that some top Republicans believe have crippled his campaign right out of the gate.

Original DVD cover

Shock and Awww, Not Again!

From TALKING POINTS MEMO:

GOP Looks To Shock Failing Medicare Plan Back To Life With New Message

Beset by a constant barrage of attacks from the left and increasing unease on the right, House Republican leaders plan to relaunch their proposal to turn Medicare into a privatized voucher program. Leading the charge will be the GOP budget’s architect, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), who is scheduled to deliver an address on the topic at the Economic Club of Chicago on Monday.

Because shit always smells better when you stir it up again.
Original DVD cover

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Orange

From POLITICO:

So maybe it wasn’t the best timing in the world: Even as House Republicans face tough questions at their town hall meetings about Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget plan, Speaker John Boehner has given an interview in which he said Ryan’s plan was an idea “worthy of consideration” and that he wasn’t “wedded to it.”

Original DVD cover

Eric Cantor Sucks!

From THINKPROGRESS:

Having secured “draconian” cuts in a last-minute budget deal last week, House Republicans are hyping House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) new “Path to Prosperity” plan. The proposal professes to reform programs like Medicare and Medicaid to rein in spending by $6.2 trillion over the next decade. But as the Washington Post’s Ezra Klein notes, Ryan’s Medicare and Medicaid plans “rely on the same bait-and-switch: They use a reform to disguise a cut.” By making Medicare a voucher program and Medicaid a block grant program with $750 billion less in funding, Ryan’s plan forces seniors to pay more for the same benefits, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, and jeopardizes vital health care services for millions of low-income Americans.

Today on Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace questioned House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R-VA) support for a plan in which Americans “pay more out of pocket.” Defending the proposal, Cantor argued that these programs sometimes provide a “safety net” for “people who frankly don’t need one” and that the shift of the burden from the government to the beneficiary will teach government “to do more with less”:

Original DVD cover