Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security Anniversary by Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0/Original

The main reason I got into political writing was that Her Majesty, Queen Teresa, got tired of me stalking about the house badmouthing the former President and his coterie of sleazy sycophants. She told me to, “either do something about it, or shut up.” So I started writing.

The second major reason I write is that I hope to start pushing back on the leftists’ who have commandeered and distorted American English for their own political ends. They, unlike the quisling Republicans, understand that if you control the language, you control the argument. What is sad, is that I actually hear many on our side using leftist terms. I’ve even heard Sean Hannity use “MediCare/MedicAid*” as a single term implying equivalency. I’ve also heard him referring to MedicAid as an entitlement. It’s time we conservatives took our language back and reset the terms of the debate. To that end, today’s article is the first in a continuing series of attempts to get some of the language back on track.

“Entitlement,” is a once good word taken over and distorted by liberals. Used properly, it conveys right, proper, moral and legal ownership of something. Some examples are, your home when it’s paid off, your 401K or your military pension, once you have achieved 20 years honorable service.

Used by liberals, however, “entitlement,” falsely encompasses Medicaid, SNAP, and other means-tested largess. By changing the definition and common use of the word, “entitlement,” the liberals can and will try to assign the same legal status to SNAP as to military pensions, basically equating a property right earned by a veteran with government charity funded by taxes forcibly extracted by that same veteran.

When the inevitable budget cuts come, the liberals will equate military pensions with SNAP and will float the meme that, “we all have to share the sacrifice.” Best case in that situation would be “across the board cuts.” Worst case, liberals being liberals, would means test the cuts, with the greatest cuts coming from the most “fortunate.” You know, the ones who have earned some sort of pension.

The current military leadership has already tried to float a version of this. There was a recent attempt to “means test” Military Retiree TRICARE in order to help fund ObamaCare. Annual fees and doctor copayments would be based on income as opposed to all paying the same. Even the Congressional Budget Office during the Trump Administration keeps floating this proposal to steal from veterans in order to fund government charity.

My prediction: The next step will be for the next Democrat Administration (with help from the RINO caucus) to make MedicAid the standard for TRICARE (and MediCare) payment management and doctor selection. Right now TRICARE uses MediCare rules. Basically, in order to save money, the Administration will “devalue” MediCare and TRICARE. This will also be yet another step towards Single Payer.

*Yes, I know how to spell the names of these programs, I’m spelling them this way to emphasize they are different programs.

Mike Ford is a retired Infantry Colonel who writes on Military, Foreign Affairs and occasionally dabbles in Political and Economic matters.

You can find his other Red State work here.