In some ways, you have to pity Paul Ryan. A few months ago, he was the savior of the Republican party, and a media darling who could apparently do no wrong and who was the only person in Washington who was serious about solving the nation’s problems. Now, he’s the ogre who cost the Republicans a safe House seat in upstate New York, who got nearly every congressional Republican on record in support of a plan that most Americans hate, and who may well have done more for President Obama’s reelection than any Democratic strategist could ever dream of doing.
Still, that doesn’t excuse his sour grapes attack on seniors. In trying to explain away what happened in the NY-26 special election, Ryan said:
If you can scare seniors into thinking that their current benefits are being affected, that’s going to have an effect. And that is exactly what took place here.
That’s pretty offensive when you think about it. Ryan is correct in saying that his Medicare Destruction plan would not directly affect people over the age of 55, so current seniors would keep their current benefits. But, clearly, Ryan assumes that if seniors understood that, they would have voted for his plan, and Kathy Hochul wouldn’t have won.
In other words, Ryan thinks that seniors are happy to destroy Medicare for people younger than they are, as long as they get to keep their benefits for their own greedy selves. I find that highly unlikely. I think, rather, that Paul Krugman has it right:
Mr. Ryan may claim — and he may even believe — that he’s facing a backlash because his opponents are lying about his proposals. But the reality is that the Ryan plan is turning into a political disaster for Republicans, not because the plan’s critics are lying about it, but because they’re describing it accurately.
When Americans – old, young, or in between – realize what’s actually in Paul Ryan’s Medicare Destruction Act of 2011, they recoil. That’s exactly what happened in NY-26. And no amount of self-pity on Ryan’s part can change that.
denim says
immediately upon passage. This according to a news conference by Sen Sheldon Whitehouse D-RI today. So it would cost RI Seniors $9 million out of pocket immediately. Ryan…just another selfish Randite who thinks everybody thinks like that.
johnk says
If your plan for Medicare is the best choice, why not do it now. Why should seniors be chained the the anvil of the existing Medicare plan when they could enjoy the benefits of vouchers now?
kbusch says
That’s the odd thing about the whole “entitlement” attack.
johnk says
isn’t it?
How about those under 55, do they get a check?
Ryan says
that his new “Medicare” voucher program would have meant they wouldn’t have had to pay into it for their entire lives to get it, so I don’t think that counts as a rational explanation. People still would have paid their entire lives for it, making it all the more inexcusable.
joeltpatterson says
Americans want fairness. If we work hard and play by the rules, we should be able to retire with dignity so that we do not need charity for the healthcare, food, and rent of our elderly years. We want it for our children because it worked for our grandparents and our parents. It would be nice if the stock market, banks, and savings & loan companies could provide us with a secure dignified retirement, but every time we have 2 terms of a Republican President, the financial system seems to chew up the savings of the ordinary people who put their earnings in there. Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are good ideas–and should be expanded!
jconway says
That said I think it is incumbent upon the Democrats to immediately begin pushing their own version of reform that saves, strengthens, and expands these programs while also reducing the deficit. Bill Clinton has already criticized Democrats, accurately in my view, for playing politics with this issue and not digging into the serious policy discussion we need to have. If we are simply the party of ‘No!’ to terrible ideas than we are not proving we can govern or lead. We need to propose some progressive ideas on our own, and I think Simpons Bowles is a good place to start, parsing that budget with the one the Progressive Caucus put out could produce a viable solution.
jconway says
I am liking the politics, Democrats are finally starting to fight for their ideas again, including those in the Administration. The grassroots is getting fire in their belly again as well, this campaign for a lot of reasons was a great run through for 2012. We can re-elect this President and hopefully a progressive majority.
Ryan says
after Republicans spent months literally describing Obama’s health care reform as “death panels” even though there was no such thing, he’d have the audacity to suggest Democrats were misrepresenting something in his bill. I think Republicans love to complain about things they do *all the time* at the soonest hint that Democrats maybe, kinda, sorta are doing it, even when they aren’t. I think there’s something pathological about it.