Just a quick review of what Republicans ran on in 2010:
balloon-juice.com
In Florida, the conservative 60-Plus Association took aim at Democratic members of Congress Allen Boyd, Alan Grayson and Suzanne Kosmas. The ad said the new health care law “will cut $500 billion from Medicare. That will hurt the quality of our care.”
In Pennsylvania, the Republican-controlled group Crossroads GPS attacked Democratic Senate candidate Joe Sestak, saying he “voted to gut Medicare … reducing benefits for 854,489 seniors.”
In California, Crossroads GPS said Barbara Boxer “voted to cut spending on Medicare benefits by $500 billion, cuts so costly to hospitals and nursing homes that they could stop taking Medicare altogether.”
Alex Sink wants to “cut Medicare.”
Rick Scott, Wednesday, September 1st, 2010.
Seniors and the disabled “will have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘death panel’ so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their ‘level of productivity in society,’ whether they are worthy of health care.”
Sarah Palin, Friday, August 7th, 2009.
And here’s John Boehner:
“Once again today, Democrats are peddling talking points that are directly contradicted by their actual legislation. They are holding a press conference to pat themselves on the back for ‘protecting’ Medicare, even though their government takeover of health care bill would cut seniors’ Medicare benefits by $500 billion. Are you kidding me? The American people are fed up with Washington politicians who say one thing and do another.”
I was getting a piece of direct mail every day from Karl Rove’s Crossroads group here in Ohio, and every single one was “Democrats cut 500 billion from Medicare”.
All of that was, of course, a lie, but we can agree they ran on saving Medicare from the big, bad Democrats, right?
And, they get a majority in the House…
Republicans will present this week a 2012 budget proposal that would cut more than $4 trillion from federal spending projected over the next decade and transform the Medicare health program for the elderly, a move that will dramatically reshape the budget debate in Washington.
The plan would essentially end Medicare, which now pays most of the health-care bills for 48 million elderly and disabled Americans, as a program that directly pays those bills.
Republicans are hoping to retain the senior citizen vote by pushing this off on those 55 or younger.
For what it’s worth, I don’t think Ryan’s cowardly dodge of waiting ten years to end Medicare will mitigate GOP losses.
When I talk to people about health care, the most frightened and insecure segment are people who are now in their fifties, because they’re worried they’ll lose their job and won’t be able to get another one with health benefits. This is a completely rational and reasonable fear, by the way.
They’re all waiting to get on Medicare. |
