Medicare could be GOP’s Waterloo
Dancing with the Medicare
Last Tuesday was a good day.
Not only did Hines Ward elevate Steeler Nation by taking home that “Dancing with the Stars” Mirror Ball trophy, but thanks to the results of the special election in New York, congressional Republicans saw their political lives pass right before their very eyes.
What a great day.
Last Nov. 2, Republican Chris Lee won re-election against his Democratic challenger (Philip A. Fedele) by 48 percent (74 percent to 26 percent) in New York’s 26th congressional district.
That was before the married Lee got caught sending semi-nude pictures of himself to transgender women on Craiglist.
The following day Lee resigned.
That caused a special election in a Republican dominated district that had only had a Democrat serve in congress three times since 1857.
The Republican, N.Y. Assemblywoman Jane Corwin, was thought to be on an easy path to victory.
She lost.
Something happened between Lee’s 48 percent win last November, and last Tuesday night – the Paul Ryan Budget.
Last month, when all but six Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives voted for Ryan’s budget plan, they did it with all of the aplomb that only self-proclaimed stewards of the American economy could.
But within days, there were cries foul from senior citizens across the country who felt Ryan’s budget was a means to dismantle their Medicare.
Corwin, who’d supported Ryan’s budget, could clearly see her support diminish as angry senior citizens across the country showed up at Republican town hall meetings to voice their misgivings about a plan that would, in effect, send them out onto the open market to take care of the health care needs.
Corwin’s underdog Democratic opponent, Kathy Hochul, saw an opening.
She hammered away at Corwin’s support for Ryan’s budget, while she saw her own fortunes rise with potential voters.
The weekend before the election, Corwin told a group of senior citizens, “It’s starting a conversation that we absolutely have to have, but I’m not married to it.”
Corwin’s change of heart was understandable. She’d just read the latest pre-election poll that showed her trailing in a race that was supposed to have been easy pickings.
Corwin’s twisted messaging had come only a few days after Newt Gingrich announced his candidacy for president.
He’d called Ryan’s budget plan “right-wing social engineering,” before the Republican backlash sent him scurrying for cover.
He now he’s for it. (I haven’t checked today to find out if he’s against it again)
Corwin’s newfound hesitance to support Ryan’s plan, came too late. She lost to a Democrat, in a race that is now considered a harbinger of congressional and presidential election politics to come.
When Hines Ward was crowned this year’s Dancing with the Stars champion, the second place finisher, Kirstie Alley, showed grace.
Too bad the architect of the Ryan plan, Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), wasn’t as gracious when he appeared the following morning on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.
“The President and his party have decided to shamelessly distort and demagogue Medicare. So we’re going to see a new “MediScare” reform campaign here,” said Ryan.
I don’t remember Ryan complaining about “demagoguery” when Republicans created “death panels” out of thin air during the debate over health care reform.
He doesn’t seem to be the least bit worried when his fellow Republicans falsely claim that health care reform is a “government takeover of health care.”
He’s just trying to smooth over the fact that nearly every Republican in the U.S. House has happily super-glued themselves to a vote from which they can’t back away.
Ryan knows that all 235 of them will be up for re-election in 2012, and they’ll be unable to claim they were really trying to “save” Medicare all along.
On Wednesday, Democrats forced a vote on the Ryan budget. As predicted, it failed miserably (57-40), with all but five Republican Senators voting for it.
Those five Republicans could face the wrath of their own party. The Republicans who voted for it could face the wrath of the voters.
This could be more fun than watching “Dancing with the Stars.”
Edward A. Owens is a three-ime Emmy Award winner and 20-year veteran of television news. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net
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