Sir Scott Bravely Ran Away

Republican Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts should be the perfect vote for the GOP Medicare-destroying plan.  If the voters in a high-tax blue state want to reduce government spending, and that Scott Brown's election means they have a mandate to get that done, then Scott Brown should be leading the way on this issue in selling this plan to the fiscally-minded independents and Reagan Democrats that put him in office, yes?

Yeah, right.

GOP Sen. Scott Brown (Mass.) said Monday he won't support Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) budget when it comes up for a vote in the Senate.

Brown, a centrist who is running for reelection in 2012, said that Ryan's plan helped jumpstart a necessary debate, but that its Medicare reforms go too far.

"While I applaud Ryan for getting the conversation started, I cannot support his specific plan — and therefore will vote 'no' on his budget," he wrote in a Politico op-ed.

"Our country is on an unsustainable fiscal path," he added. "But I do not think it requires us to change Medicare as we know it. We can work inside of Medicare to make it more solvent."

Brown follows centrist GOP Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), who announced last month she will not vote for the plan.

The "Sensible Centrist" Republicans in the Senate are running away from this Medicare-killer and Social Security-wrecker as fast as their press releases and op-eds and sound bites can carry them.  And that tells you everything you need to know about how well the plan will work.  The new Beltway wisdom on the GOP plan is that it's a disaster as John Cole notes.

No one could have predicted that 4 trillion in tax cuts for the rich while gutting Medicare and doing nothing to balance the budget would have been unpopular with the public. It’s a mystery!

DougJ is right. Thank you, Bobo! Thank you, Joe Klein! Thank you, Sully! Thank each and every one of the innumerate villager class who fluffed the Ryan plan and goaded the Republicans into believing their own bullshit.

I'll second that.