Thompson says he's the man to 'do away with Medicare and Medicaid'

This isn't going to help reverse Republican Tommy Thompson's slide downwards in the Wisconsin Senate race against Tammy Baldwin, at all.

That's him telling a tea party crowd back in June that he's the man to "do away with the Medicare and Medicaid."

Presumably referring to his efforts as governor to eliminate Wisconsin's welfare program, Thompson said 'who better than me ' to come up with programs to do away with Medicaid and Medicare?' [...]

'Let's block-grant what the state has, and allow the states to determine what's going to go into Medicaid.

'And Medicare, let's wait until everybody that's right now is under 55 reaches 55 ' and give them a choice whether they want to purchase health insurance with a subsidy from the federal government, or stay on Medicare."

Thompson was caught telling a truth there, though he might not have meant it as such. In block granting Medicaid and in privatizing Medicare with vouchers, Republicans would be doing away with those programs. The GOP proposals are fast-track means to the Republicans' ultimate goal of destroying the programs. And Thompson just admitted it.

Thompson's campaign tried to pass the remarks by saying, "Thompson was making the case for reforming Medicare so that we can protect it for current seniors and preserve it for future generations." Good luck with that.

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1:04 PM PT: And Baldwin's campaign strikes:

'Tommy Thompson now says he wants to 'do away with Medicare,'' Baldwin spokesman John Kraus told TPM. 'He supports the Republican plan on Medicare that will provide billions in new profits for big insurance companies and a voucher for seniors instead of the guaranteed benefit they paid for. ' It's clear Tommy is not for Wisconsin anymore.'