IT'S THE END OF [insert broken Dem cause here] AS WE KNOW IT

That loud whine you hear coming from the vicinity of the nation's capital today is not Air Force One's engines turning up; rather, it is the wailing about the FY12 budget that is being debated. The good news is, there is actually open debate being allowed and no, it's not a new concept, our Congress used to debate bills all the time before Nancy Pelosi became speaker. But, just as the whine of a jet engine has discernable harmonics or repetitive tones, so does the whining in the House of Representatives and the White House (Senate gets a pass since, like most fun-loving college kids, they are on Spring Break until May).

The harmonic tone coming from Washington is "It's the end of Medicare as we know it."

We heard this before in the 90's when the Republican Congress wrote and passed Welfare reform legislation: "It's the end of Welfare as we know it."

I wonder if Dems reacted with such horror to Dr. Jonas Salk: "It's the end of polio as we know it."

Mark Steyn correctly sums up the entire issue:


"Ending Medicare as we know it? Say it ain't so! Medicare, we hardly knew ye! It's an open question whether Americans will fall for one more chorus of the same old song from Baucus, Harkin, Podesta, and the other members of America's wrinkliest boy band. But, if this is the level on which the feckless patronizing spendaholics of the permanent governing class want to conduct the debate, bring it on:

Paul Ryan's plan would "end Medicare as we know it."

The Democrats' "plan" - business as usual - will end America as we know it.

"Literally," as Representative Wasserman-Schultz would say. One way or another, Medicare as we know it is going to end. So, if you think an unsustainable 1960s welfare program is as permanent a feature as the earth and sky, you're in for a shock. It's just a question of whether, after the shock, what's left looks like Japan or looks like Haiti."'

I wish every time a Dem stood up and repeated "It's the end of Medicare as we know it" the entire House Majority would stand up and sing "And I feel fiiiiinnnnnneee"