Anyone watching the election campaign picked up pretty fast on the fact that Donald Trump has no real policy beliefs or understanding of the policy process, but rather relies on emotive slogans and the insights of whomever is momentarily ascendant among his inner group of sycophants. We’ve gleaned from bits and pieces of what he has told folks that he doesn’t intend to get his hands dirty with actual presidential work. Which means that when it comes to policy, we’re likely going to be dealing with co-presidents-in-all-but-title, Paul Ryan and Mike Pence.

And for House Speaker Ryan that means that he may finally have the means to put the social safety net out of the misery the GOP has tried to inflict on it over the years. It looks like Medicare is going to get the ax first. As TPM reports, Ryan has “proposed to privatize the current Medicare system, within the earliest days of the impending Trump administration.”

Ryan’s hoping to phase out our highly efficient Medicare insurance system in favor of a voucher system which, in the long term, is not likely to cover the cost of buying comprehensive insurance in an uncontrolled private market. Though Ryan touts the savings to be realized from privatizing Medicare, economics journalist Michael Hiltzik shows that that the savings would be “illusory,” with costs “shifted from government to seniors.”

Ryan’s new strategy seems to be to phase Medicare out as part of the process of fulfilling The Donald’s promise to kill Obamacare. Ryan’s already started a propaganda blitz tying the two together as part of a deceptively titled “reform.” As Hitzlick points out:

Ryan has surrounded his Medicare proposal with a bodyguard of lies. In his Fox News appearance, he said Medicare is “going broke” and ascribed its problems to the Affordable Care Act. Neither is true.

Medicare faces fiscal problems, but it’s not going broke, and according to both the Medicare trustees and the Congressional Budget Office, the Affordable Care Act has in fact alleviated those problems rather than caused them. The trustees reported in 2010 that passage of Obamacare had postponed the projected exhaustion date of the Medicare trust fund by 12 years — to 2029 from 2017. Projections of Medicare spending growth have consistently come down, year after year, at least in part due to changes in the program imposed through Obamacare.

The program’s fiscal situation would be “substantially improved,” the trustees said, because the ACA instituted new cost controls and provided new tax revenues for the program. Both those features would disappear if the GOP repeals the ACA, as is its intention.

Voila – Ryan guts Medicare while simultaneously deep-sixing another of the social welfare programs so despised by Republicans.

But Ryan can’t do this all on his lonesome, you say – and you’re right. It’ll take a majority of the congress to make it happen, but, with Republicans dominant in both houses, he has a very good chance. And don’t forget, he’s got The Donald.

So, comes the next question. How does our Missouri congressional delegation stand on the issue of killing the Medicare program?

Fortunately for us, Danielle Keeton-Olsen of TPM is keeping a list (and updating it regularly) of who’s naughty and nice. And so far, none of our Missouri delegation is definitely on either list. Instead, the two who’ve been contacted to date, GOP Senator Roy Blunt and Rep. Sam Graves (R-6), are listed with those who have refused to commit either way or, as Keeton-Olsen wryly notes, claim they didn’t even know it was an issue. Yeah, right.

Blunt has been on record as opposing Medicare in the past, although he has also tried to pose as a savior of aspects of the program when it has been expedient. If his past behavior is any indicator, he will hem and haw and say nothing as long as he can, and then come down firmly on the side of the GOP Senate leadership of which he is a junior member. The guy knows where his bread is buttered, and we know what that means as far as Medicare goes. And I would guess that Sam Graves isn’t going to go to any great lengths to save Medicare either since he voted yes on an earlier Ryan Budget that included the same privatization plan.

If, like me, you’re concerned about your Medicare and whether or not the program will be around for your children and their children – and there’s no objective, fiscal reason it should not be – call or write your congressmen or women today to find out where they stand and let them know where you stand.

Making your point of view known will be especially important when it comes to our only Democratic Senator, Claire McCaskill. The Senate may well be our only bulwark against Ryan’s attack on Medicare, and Senator McCaskill, who now finds herself representing a blood-red constituency, has never been a profile in courage. She’s up for re-election in two years. We’ve got to let her know that if she doesn’t defend Medicare with all she’s got, this time we really won’t forget.

Meanwhile, you can check TPM for updates – and also consider letting them know what you find out when/if you call your congressman or woman by using the “Send Comments & News Tips” link on the TPM Masthead. And I’ll update here on SMP as I learn more about the Medicare druthers of our shy Missouri pols.

The Problem: Eric Boehlert at Media Matters sums it up:

This act is getting tired.

In recent years, conservative activists, under the guise of renegade journalism, have been churning out undercover “sting” videos supposedly capturing reprehensible behavior by their mostly liberal targets. Those targets have included low-level workers at ACORN, a fundraiser at National Public Radio, and now officials at Planned Parenthood, among others.

The activists release a series of videos in an effort to build a big takedown story, and the press usually plays along. Meanwhile, activists coordinate with right-wing media players and members of Congress to generate simultaneous outrage over the clips.

The problem for the activists, and the problem for journalists who excitedly treat the clips as news, is that the videos invariably turn out to be doctored, filled with deceptive edits, and missing context in an effort to manufacture scandal.

The whole cycle has become a media cliché, but it’s one that conservative partisans cheer. And they’re cheering again this month as the Center for Medical Progress releases edited clips to claim Planned Parenthood officials have been caught discussing how the organization “sells the body parts of aborted fetuses” and “haggling” over prices for “baby parts.”

The Evidence: Both Planned Parenthood videos have been edited in order to offer a false narrative. If you want the details, take a look at one or more of the following sources: Media Matters, or FactCheck.org. Media Matters also links to and summarizes the responses of the media outlets that have pushed back against the dishonest videos.

The Experiment: So what do members of Missouri’s congressional delegation have to say about the situation? I searched their Webpages looking for formal statements on the topic. This is what I found on the pages of those who had prepared statements available:

From Rep. Vicky Hartzler’s (R-4) press release:

Last week and this morning, new videos were released detailing how Planned Parenthood harvests and sells the body parts of aborted children.  For decades Planned Parenthood employees have tried to diminish the humanity of the unborn by belittling them to blobs of tissue. […] This is human life we’re talking about.  We cannot stand by while aborted baby parts are being sold for profit [Emphasis added].

Rep. From Ann Wagner’s (R-2) press release:

[…] I rise today to express my continued outrage at now two abhorrent videos that have been released in the last week, in which two of Planned Parenthood’s senior doctors describe the process by which they and their coworkers kill unborn children and harvest their organs for sale. […] Yet here we stand on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, to discuss whether the sale of human body parts harvested from aborted children violates basic human dignity and perhaps even the law. [Emphasis added]

From Rep. Jason Smith’s (R-8) press release:

This week, Congressman Jason Smith cosponsored two bills to block all federal funding for Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers. The action comes after two disturbing videos were made public showing Planned Parenthood executives discussing selling body parts of unborn babies, potentially in violation of federal law.  […] Smith went on to say,  “I have never wavered from my firm belief that life is precious and must be protected. Americans deserve a full-scale investigation into Planned Parenthood’s immoral, potentially criminal conduct. Taxpayer money should be spent on taxpayer priorities, not unethical, unaccountable, unreasonable actions.  I will continue to fight against Planned Parenthood and its affiliates until they shift their priorities and work to protect the miracle of life.” [Emphasis added]

From Rep. Sam Grave’s (R-6) press release:

… after the two gut-wrenching videos of Planned Parenthood executives discussing their tactics were released, it is clear that the organization is much more radical than we ever could have thought,” Rep. Graves continued. “The fight against Planned Parenthood and its affiliates will continue until they show they can respect the lives of all people – born or unborn.[Emphasis added]

Conclusions:

1. Nobody at Planned Parenthood is “selling baby parts.”  

2. Our Republican representatives, who have the same access to the evidence discrediting the videos that we all do, are blatantly lying every time they repeat their catchphrase “selling baby parts” or use other provocative language to gin up misplaced outrage.

3. Since “baby parts” are not being “harvested” for sale, they must justify congressional hearings based either on either or both of the following:  (a) they don’t like the way that doctors talk about their everyday work, or (b) they disapprove of abortion – which, last I heard is still legal, a status that is supported by a large number of Americans.

4. Fetal tissue from abortions is being utilized to help find cures (pdf) for disease. Thank fetal tissue research for polio, rubella and varicella vaccines. It is also being used to explore cures for such diseases as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, Down’s Syndrome, SIDs, and heart disease.

5. Missouri’s congressional Republicans have so little real respect for the “unborn human life” they endlessly carry on about that they are willing to have it incinerated along with garbage rather than being utilized to save actual living “born” people.

Future Actions: First, Don’t let these liars waste legislative time and taxpayer dollars on another big propaganda circus that is clearly calculated to help provide immunity for an attack on women’s reproductive health during an election year. Second, if hearing go ahead, make sure they are as discredited as the videos that inspired them. Third, hold our Missouri politicians, the folks we sent to Washington, accountable for their lies.

Edited slightly post-publication, content added in last paragraph.