{"id":13516,"date":"2013-03-08T07:47:38","date_gmt":"2013-03-08T12:47:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/?p=13516"},"modified":"2013-03-08T07:47:38","modified_gmt":"2013-03-08T12:47:38","slug":"after-dinner-diplomacy-whats-next-for-obama-and-gop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/2013\/03\/08\/after-dinner-diplomacy-whats-next-for-obama-and-gop\/","title":{"rendered":"After Dinner Diplomacy, What&#8217;s Next for Obama and GOP?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Real Clear Politics<\/em> has the article <a title=\"Real Clear Politics article\" href=\"http:\/\/ww.realclearpolitics.com\/articles\/2013\/03\/08\/after_dinner_diplomacy_whats_next_for_obama_and_gop_117350.html\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>After Dinner Diplomacy, What&#8217;s Next for Obama and GOP?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Wisconsin\u2019s Sen. Ron Johnson, a former accountant and Tea Party favorite, told reporters the conversation was lively when the subject turned to Medicare. Obama, he said, conceded aloud what his own budget blueprints lay out \u2013 that Medicare, the government\u2019s health coverage for the elderly, is projected to bleed red ink in the future because of rising health care costs and an aging population.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson quoted the president as telling the dozen senators at the Jefferson Hotel that \u201cthe American people, most of them, just don\u2019t understand it. They think with Medicare, that\u2019s their money. And to a certain extent it is: one dollar they put in, and get 3 dollars back in benefits.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Listening to Obama lament Americans\u2019 confusion about whether Medicare beneficiaries tap their own or other people\u2019s money, Johnson said he urged him to spread some light and not just heat.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou have a unique position,\u201d the senator recalled telling Obama. \u201cIf you are going to solve these problems, the American people are going to have to understand it. You can go out and educate people to prepare them for the reforms that are absolutely necessary.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This has got to be the scariest article I have ever read.\u00a0 One can only hope that Sen. Johnson is a complete loon and misheard what President Obama said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Real Clear Politics has the article After Dinner Diplomacy, What&#8217;s Next for Obama and GOP? Wisconsin\u2019s Sen. Ron Johnson, a former accountant and Tea Party favorite, told reporters the conversation was lively when the subject turned to Medicare. Obama, he said, conceded aloud what his own budget blueprints lay out \u2013 that Medicare, the government\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[166],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13516","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-stevegsposts","7":"czr-hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13516"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13517,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13516\/revisions\/13517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}