GOP jumps on third rail of politics, takes aim at Medicare

From the Washington Post: The candidates brandished a “Health Care Bill of Rights for Seniors” that promised to protect Medicare from their opponents’ “raid.” The party chairman wrote an op-ed warning that the other guys’ plan meant that “senior citizens will pay a steeper price and will have their treatment options reduced or rationed.” The ads were even blunter. “You cut our Medicare,” one accused. “And this November, you’re fired.” Democrats in any election you care to name? Nope. It was Republicans running against the Affordable Care Act’s Medicare cuts in 2010. It worked, too. Seniors turned out in big numbers, and Republicans carried voters over 65 by an astounding 21 points — by far their biggest margin among any age group. [SNIP] The 2012 budget proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and passed by House Republicans on Friday would privatize Medicare and shift most of the entitlement’s future costs onto seniors. According to the Congressional Budget Office, come 2030, seniors would be paying for nearly 70 percent of their private Medicare-certified insurance out of pocket. If the program were left alone or reformed another way, they’d only be paying 25 to 30 percent. Ryan has considered this problem and chosen to exempt everyone over age 55 from his plan and delay implementing it for a decade. But since he needed savings now, he adopted all of the Affordable Care Act’s Medicare cuts — the very cuts his party opposed in 2010. There’s courage in that move, as many of those savings are wise, but there’s also rank hypocrisy for, well, the same reason. Beyond that, there’s risk. Republicans are relying on the senior vote like never before. And they might have just put it into play.]]>