As I mentioned last night, the selection of Paul Ryan has left House Republicans defenseless. This morning, Politico joins the choir, citing at least three dozen Republican operatives who don’t want to be on the record. But in the midst of dishing out their doom and gloom, they tell us their best-case scenario.
Strategists across the party call that the absolute best-case scenario for the Romney campaign and everyone else involved: President Barack Obama gets forced into a policy debate on ground where Republicans are most comfortable, Republicans counterpunch hard on the Affordable Care Act and Democrat-approved spending reductions in Medicare, and Romney roars into November with an energized Republican base behind him.
Longtime GOP presidential strategist Charlie Black conveyed that view of the race: “We have plenty of time and money and four debates to air out this Medicare reform issue. And I think we win on it when we air it out.”
Those “Democrat-approved reductions in Medicare” were all in Ryan’s Budget. Every Republican in a tough reelection fight this year voted for those Republican-approved reductions in Medicare. The Republicans are seriously left with nothing but a plan to accuse the Democrats of supporting reductions in Medicare funding that they all voted for.
The “I voted against it (in ObamaCare) before I voted for it (in Ryan’s Budget)” argument is always a giant loser. But this lie is especially bad because it doesn’t even have any underlying merit. The suggestion is that it is okay to destroy Medicare’s guaranteed benefit because everyone in Congress voted for reductions in subsidies under Medicare Advantage. That doesn’t logically follow at all.
It doesn’t balance out. You can’t blame Democrats for doing what you have done yourself, especially when you are totally mischaracterizing what you all have done. But that is the Republican strategy. Romney told that lie just yesterday.
The House GOP has been obfuscating on Medicare since the Clinton administration. Remember the whole uproar when Gingrich accused Dems of lying about Republican Medicare cuts?
(Somerby has recounted this tale endlessly and it is hilariously retold in Franken’s “Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot.”)
Then as now, Republicans are playing a shell game, switching Medicare costs and Medicare benefits. The cuts in the Ryan plan are reductions of benefits. The cuts in Obamacare are reductions of cost.
By GOP reckoning, if I buy a pound of ground beef for $3 instead of $4, I’m cutting my food intake.
The Democrat should always and I do mean ALWAYS, when talking about COUPON CARE (I agree with those- use COUPON), begin the discussion reminding people of Ryan’s leadership in TRYING TO PRIVATIZE SOCIAL SECURITY.
They might try to muddy the waters about COUPONCARE, but they can’t on what they tried to do with Social Security, and thus, will lend credence to the FACT that he wants to turn Medicare into COUPONCARE.
Next, they must always remind folks that the GOP had the chance to ‘ come to Jesus’ and do the right thing, but they didn’t. they voted TWICE TO END MEDICARE.
Should be out of the mouths for every Dem on tv
The Democrats DO not care. There are so many things that this party could be doing for America. But notice GOP is always the scapegoat. Somehow it is that darn political party (which I may point out has basically the same monied interests)
The best thing to do is not listen to anyone about any direction for America. No one knows where we are headed & the corruption that is never brought to daylight, that is our come-uppance as a nation.
DNC need to stop making excuses,enough. The GOP is your counter balance to never getting our country on track. It is a great scheme though, playing on hopes & dreams of citizens who should know better by now.
If you were a long-time reader of this site, you would know that your argument would fall on deaf ears for the specific reason that I have been documenting Republican obstruction for four years, and laying out what is and is not possible in the face of such obstruction.
Deaf ears.
Yup.
And eyes wide shut too.
Read my
lips…errr, ahhh, sig…below.AG
Acceding to a Republican takeover is less evil than actively working for it, I suppose.
But you’re right: it is still evil.
You really think that the DemRats And RatPubs oppose each other, don’t you.
Unbelievable.
Look at the arc of foreign policy after the JFK coup right on through O’Bomber for all you need to know about that.
American exceptionalism…which translates as American economic dominance achieved through military means or at the very least the threat thereof…on every level of the world.
Cuba.
The Middle East.
Newark.
Africa.
Macrocosm/Microcosm.
Wake the fuck up.
AG
Okay, let’s follow da dough:
http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.slate.com/blogs/trending/2012/06/13/romney_crushing_obama_in_
donations_from_wall_street.html&sa=U&ei=OHUqUKywLoeg6QGP0YCgCA&ved=0CBgQFjAB&usg=AFQ
jCNECiN1upY6S96WaVWvJceiqXXKOnQ
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1010/43442.html
Except that they did get away with it in 2010 when they scared the seniors with the lie that Obama had cut Medicare.
that was then…
Yes, we all hope that 2010 was different because it was a mid-term, low turnout election. And because Obama is on the ballot now and so his team is actually engaged in the campaign this time around.
Not only will the GOP continue as a party, they will continue to thrive & be the go to party for gullible america. Why? Because our corporate masters don’t give a shit, go w/ Democrat or Republican, who cares? America will always switch back to the GOP. Because the Democrats will never EVER deliver on their promises. All the GOP has to do is sabotage and they do it over and over again.
Except it was not “Democrat-approved spending reductions”, it was non-budget actions expected to save Medicare $700 billion over 10 years without hurting health care services to seniors. Fraud enforcement, sharing of best practices, free preventive procedures, and similar actions. The Republican argument in 2010 was phoney-baloney but the Democrats never challenged it. Now, there is a study to show that Medicare/Medicaid is more cost effective than private health care coverage.
I wonder whether Ryan’s budget looks at this non-financially or just cuts $700 billion from the Medicare budget as it rolls it out as vouchers with no cost-control measures.
It took you too many sentences to explain that.
These questions can be answered concisely without all the wonkiness. For example, one big chunk of the savings is in making insurance companies accept the same level of payment as other Medicare providers. So the answer to the zombie lie is, “What, you want to overpay insurance companies? Why would we do that?” Another is, “That money plowed back into Medicare will keep Medicare going for 8 additional years, with no additional funding from taxpayers.”
If Republican governors can get away with slamming the stimulus while posing with giant stimulus checks, then I think they might be able to pull this one off.
It’s a defensive attempt to muddy the water. The Republicans want to make the expected Democratic attacks on their Medicare plans less effective.
Wait a minute. This “policy debate on ground where Republicans are most comfortable”–can they possibly be talking about Medicare? Charlie Black’s comment sure makes it sound like that, but it’s hard to imagine how anyone thinks the Republicans have the high ground on the Medicare issue. The idea that they want to “air out this Medicare reform issue” is a little like Br’er Fox challenging Br’er Rabbit to a fist fight in the briar patch.
I agree with you, but I think Republicans are comfortable on Medicare since the Teabagger Convulsion of ’09 when they found out they could lie about it all they wanted, and get away with it, as long as they looked angry enough.
I’m hoping that the public is not quite as easily snowed this time around. It’s always fun when the Pubbies’ plans backfire.
oh they will def try, unless responsible jounrnos strike back at them with facts, then they get angry.
case in point : R-Money spokesman John Sununu is a piece of work. I glad Soledad didn’t back down from this asshole!!!
Romney surrogate to CNN host: `Put an Obama bumper sticker on your forehead’
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/08/14/romney-surrogate-to-cnn-host-put-an-obama-bumper-sticker-on-yo
ur-forehead/
I don’t get it. Why will voters understand a distinction between medicare advantage and medicare?