Did Thune actually hear the message on Social Security, Medicare and bipartisanship?

Sen. John Thune (R-SD) told the Argus Leader that he heard two messages in his town meetings this August recess.

"Do something," Thune said Wednesday after a town hall meeting at the Brandon Municipal Golf Course. "Why can't you work together? There?s a high level of frustration with the inaction, and there's a lack of confidence in the country and the economy. They want to see us get something done."

That's one of the major insights he?ll take back to Washington, D.C. after the August recess, he said.

It ranks behind "don't cut my Social Security and Medicare. I've heard that quite a bit," Thune said.

That's his "insight," but one has to wonder if he actually got the message. Thune was among Republican senators who voted for the Ryan budget plan that would end Medicare. No mention of that in a town meeting in Brandon, in which he told constituents that "a Constitutional amendment requiring the federal government to balance its budget might be needed before Congress attempts to make major changes to the Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid programs that make up more than half of all federal spending."

He also failed to mention that Social Security isn't standing in the way of the federal government balancing its budget. One suspects that, however many times Thune heard the messages of bipartisanship and protecting the social safety net, that's not a message he really heard, or will go back to D.C. and act upon.

(H/T Think Progress)

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/z5J4fsfgWzU/-Did-Thune-actually-hear-the-message-on-Social-Security,-Medicare-andbipartisanship

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