August 28, 2009 08:30 PM UTC

Limbaugh, other conservatives hit Markey Medicare comment

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• by: BobMoore

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

Rep. Betsy Markey’s comments on the necessity of reining in Medicare costs as part of health-care reform got lots of play this week in conservative media circles, including El Rushbo.

Markey was asked at a constituent meeting in Fort Collins Wednesday about the impact of health-care reform on Medicare. She’s consistently said that reducing the costs of Medicare or Medicaid are keys for her in any health-care reform package because they’re such big cost drivers. The answer she gave Wednesday was consistent with that, but the language she used was a bit more personal:

“There’s going to be some people who are going to have to give up some things, honestly, for all of this to work. But we have to do this because we’re Americans.”

The National Republican Congressional Committee seized on the comment and sent out a press release, saying Markey was singing off the Democratic song sheet. In short order the Coloradoan story on Markey’s meeting was linked by the Drudge Report and then through the conservative blogosphere.

Then Limbaugh weighed in (unfortunately getting our Web site wrong).

“From Colorado.com: Representative Betsy Markey told a gathering of constituents in Fort Collins, Colorado, yesterday that ‘Some people, including Medicare recipients, will have to give up some current benefits to truly reform the nation’s health-care system.’ That’s exactly right, Representative Betsy Markey told a gathering of her constituents in Fort Collins, Colorado, she’s a lib, that some people, including Medicare recipients, are going to have to give up some current benefits to truly reform the nation’s health care system.  Now, the last living Kennedy brother, Barack Obama, says no, that’s not true.  Obama is saying we’re going to cut waste and fraud in Medicare; nobody is going to suffer any benefit cuts.  But here are his Democrats running around, ‘Oh, yeah, you’re going to get some, there are going to be some.’  Of course there have to be!  There have to be.  Folks, Medicare doesn’t have any money; Social Security doesn’t have any money; everything the Democrats have given us is bankrupt, including the country.”

As I said in my Coloradoan blog, this is the state of our politics in the health-care debate: Republicans criticizing a Democrat for advocating the shrinking of a government program to bring spending under control, and Democrats accusing Republicans of scaring seniors for political gain. A world truly turned upside down.

More on my Coloradoan blog: https://bit.ly/19Yj2b