Rumors spread over the weekend that Republican Budget Chair Paul Ryan is really a Democratic sleeper agent. The story goes that Ryan was recruited by Democratic operatives as a young man and agreed to assume a cover as a deeply conservative Republican. He was hired as a Legislative aide for Conservative Senator Sam Brownback and subsequently wrote speeches for former Housing Secretary Jack Kemp.
Then, in 1998, he won a seat in Congress as a Conservative Republican and began to establish credibility as a Far Right economic conservative.
If the rumor is correct, all of this toiling in the Conservative vineyard was undertaken to develop the credibility he needed to herd his fellow Republicans into a political box canyon where they could be ambushed by waiting Democrats.
Last week this deep undercover operation finally succeeded, when Ryan actually convinced virtually every Republican to vote to end Medicare.
All right, there isn't really a rumor that Ryan is a Democratic sleeper agent. But the result is likely to be the same.
Last Friday, Congressman Paul Ryan and his self-described "Young Gun" colleague, Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor, got most of their colleagues to willingly jump off a political cliff.
When the political history of this period is written, the Medicare vote held last week will go down as the turning point that doomed Republican chances to keep control of the House in 2012. For Democrats, it will be like shooting fish in a barrel.
In fact, in recent history, I don't remember a major Party in the United States making such a catastrophic political error.
Maybe their own ideology has blinded them from the fact that polling shows that almost two thirds of the American electorate is strongly opposed to cutting -- much less eliminating -- Medicare as a means of reducing the deficit. And that is before the voters understand in concrete terms what the Republican budget plan means to their own family's economic security.
According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, if the Republican budget were to become law, it would:
So in other words, the Republicans voted for a plan that would:
That is a political disaster.
In voting to eliminate Medicare -- and for the entire Republican budget plan -- Republicans in Congress have ignored five basic political facts:
1). It's one thing to prevent people from achieving their aspirations. It's quite another to take something away that they already have -- to rip something precious from their hands.
People love Medicare. They love the guarantee that their health care will be covered. They love that they don't have to cope with choosing between private plans, benefit limits, and the fear that their premiums can be arbitrarily increased, or their coverage will be denied.
The polling is clear. In a CNN poll early this month 90% of respondents said they thought funding for Medicare should stay the same or be increased (75% said the same for Medicaid).
Last month a CBS News poll found 76% unwilling to cut Medicare to balance the budget.
The thing that makes it so astonishing, is that many same House Republicans who voted to eliminate Medicare, were actually elected last fall claiming that the Democrat backed Affordable Health Care Act cut Medicare by half a trillion dollars.
They implied that the new health care law cut Medicare benefits. Of course that was not at all true, it actually increased benefits by eliminating the "donut hole" in prescription drug coverage. The cuts were to insurance industry subsidies -- not benefits.
But no matter, the Republicans certainly understood the power of the claim that the Democrats voted to cut Medicare. Now Republicans are not just planning to cut Medicare, they voted to end Medicare. Astonishing.
The Democratic slogan next year is simple: Hands off My Medicare.
2). People don't think of Medicare as just another government program -- it's health insurance for which they have paid their entire working lives. They think they are owed Medicare benefits.
3). People view the notion that the Republicans should raise out-of-pocket health care costs to seniors to give a tax break to the wealthy as just plain wrong.
As President Obama said in his speech last Wednesday, "They want to give people like me a $200,000 tax cut that's paid for by asking 33 seniors each to pay $6,000 more in health costs. That's not right."
When you're on the wrong side of an issue that can be framed in simple right and wrong terms, you're in deep political trouble.
4). Republicans will be subject to the charge that they have taken this outrageous vote because they have been bought and paid for by the private insurance companies that will get their hands on the Medicare trust fund -- and by the very wealthiest Americans who benefit from their tax cuts.
It doesn't help the Republican case that over his career, Congressman Paul Ryan has received $2.1 million from health and insurance interests.
The question of motive goes to the most important issue in politics: "whose side are you on?" This vote sends a clear political message that Republicans are not on the side of seniors or future retirees. Instead they are on the side of the Wall Street/CEO class and insurance companies.
5). Finally, their Medicare vote solves the Democrats' major 2012 demographic problem. Obama and the Democrats will do well among younger cohorts of the electorate. But Obama lost seniors by 8% in 2008 -- and Democrats lost seniors by 21% in 2010.
The Presidential campaign will be decided by states with relatively old electorates -- Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Ohio, Florida and Michigan to name a few.
We know from history that Democrats can win while losing seniors by 8%. They can't win while losing seniors by 21%.
If they execute well, Democrats can use the Medicare issue to get a majority of seniors in the next election -- virtually dooming any chance the Republicans have of gaining control of the Senate or the Presidency -- and massively increasing the odds that Democrats will once again take control of the House.
Before the House vote on the Republican budget last Friday, Democratic-leaning organizations distributed signs with their new slogan: "Hands off My Medicare." They might as well have read: "Go Ahead... Make My Day."
Robert Creamer is a long-time political organizer and strategist, and author of the book: Stand Up Straight: How Progressives Can Win, available on Amazon.com. Follow him on Twitter @rbcreamer.
Follow Robert Creamer on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rbcreamer
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 |
|
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Electoral Votes (270 to win) |
332 | 206 |
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Total | 65,899,660 | 60,932,152 |
| Percent | 51.1% | 47.2% |
| Democrats* | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Current Senate | 53 | 47 |
| Seats gained or lost | +2 | -2 |
| New Total | 55 | 45 |
| Democrats | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Seats won | 201 | 234 |
I mean, seriously. This is MEDICARE we're talking about - something just about all Americans will need at some point in their lives.
Advantage: Dems.
Clear and to the point!
Let's see how the MSM presents it .... they are the ones who loudly repeated the "Kill Grandma" theme WITHOUT clearing up that LIE!
So far ... I've been hearing the Republican plan as a way to keep Medicare for those 54 and under!
Now ... HOW stupid is that rational???
When in the history if the Private Health Care Insurnace business ... have the rates or cost gone ... down?
And in 10 years out ... these people believe THAT's gonna change?
Hummmm ....
IF the rich are taxed at higher rates and give up their loopholes, THEN I will take S&P seriously.
If not, it is just another "tool" of the oligarchs to get their way.
***You do know the credit rating companies gave AAA ratings to JUNK investments just before the 2008 economic meltdown?
"Rumors spread over the weekend that Republican Budget Chair Paul Ryan is really a Democratic sleeper agent." One would think so given the gift Ryan gave us Dems.! Youth is wasted on the young - isn't it Republican Ryan?
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It is Spot On and Right On!
How many republicans does it take to push a rich person through the eye of a needle?
What is the Socialist utopia every progressive believes will come about from their policies?
Answer:
Death camps.
I don't know....about some Repugs' sanity.
They get in power by telling people Obamacare will harm medicare THEN they turn around and want to get rid of medicare and change it to an inferior system.
And the Repugs have been in power less than four months.
They are in a hurry, aren't they?
When people have access to less health care.....then you WILL get more deaths.
Maybe we should call it Repug Retirement for the Masses....work until you are ready to drop dead and then die.
Little or no time retired and little or no health care for seniors (or any workers).
There are plenty of young folks so why bother with the seniors (or the sick)?
Tax payers have had it with taxes to support state and municipal budgets. All we read in local papers is nepotism, corruption and self before community.
Many small towns (with independent political leaders, school, fire, police departments), legacy of gradually expanding industrial period, have to MERGE TO REDUCE OVERHEAD COSTS, eliminate redundancies and improve efficiency by taking advantage of centralized modern information (computer) technology and management.
SIMILARLY, communities have to shrink social programs started and expanded during hey-days of economic prosperity. One may even add, those social programs have led to the current social and fiscal problems. Schools have to focus on education. Markedly REDUCE sports and cultural activities; while emphasizing family and community involvement.
At personal level, family vacations should be visiting grandparents, children, uncles and aunts. My grandchildren from Northern California spent six summers with us, in upstate NY, and have enjoyed every one of them with summer camps, etc. It's a vacation for the kids and parents and something we look forward to.
We need to shrink - not eliminate - many of our desires and goals specially when it involves spending. Govt is not the solution in these times of difficult financial situation. Federal and most local govt are more broke than individuals. Politicians need to reduce their compensation and specially their lucurative frills and retirement package.
The reason Walmart can sell items so low is due to their size. They can purchase in volume and that is always cheaper. If our government was allowed to negotiate health care prices for all of us the costs would be cut in half during the first 6 months. Prescription drugs would cost the price of making them plus a small amount for profit. Walmart is successful because they eliminated the middle man by becoming the middle man. That is the only cure for our health care ills. get rid of the middle man.
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