Ryan/GOP ransom note: 'Give us Medicare or we crash the economy'

John Nichols in The Capital Times:

... Ryan is a desperate man, as are his partners in crime. Under pressure to deliver for their paymasters in the insurance industry — who have made Ryan one of his party’s prime recipients of corporate campaign cash — they decided to take a hostage.

Faced with a routine request to raise the nation’s debt ceiling, Ryan and the Republicans balked. Even when they were told by business analysts that cutting off America’s credit would wreck the U.S. economy, they held firm, declaring that they would back a debt-ceiling increase only if it was accompanied by massive spending cuts in the form of “entitlement reform.”

Translation: Give us the Medicare money or we tank the economy...

This is serious business. The Republicans are desperate, they’re motivated, and they want Medicare.

Read it here.