Martin Hoke: “I was on a plane last week and a fellow citizen of Lakewood turned to me and he said: You know, Martin, it seems to be…”

“I was on a plane last week and a fellow citizen of Lakewood turned to me and he said: You know, Martin, it seems to be the difference between the new Democrat and the old Democrat is that the new Democrats are talking a great game, a great wonderful conservative game, and then they turn around and do the same thing that all the old liberal Democrats did. This was a fellow who grew up in Texas as a Democrat. I think that is exactly right on the money, and exactly what we can expect tonight from the President's State of the Union Address. We are going to hear another fabulous address. But when it gets down to the nitty-gritty, when we actually present a balanced budget, when we can actually do the right thing, then we in fact get into the gutter and engage in the most mindless and really shameful demagoguery that we have heard around here in a long time. Let me just give you one example, and that is the Medicare example. Our Medicare program would increase spending at 7.4 percent per pay for the next 7 years; the President's is around 7.6, 7.7 percent. Yet this is deep cuts in Medicare to pay for a tax cut for our rich friends? And with a straight face? It is just shameless.”