Yes, the President has been punching back, both on the stump and with ads. But the waters had already been considerably muddied by the time he stepped in and I believe a much more firm and direct approach to setting the record straight is in order. The President, all his surrogates, and all of us can unmuddy the Medicare waters by directing voters to this touchstone. Yeah, it's a no brainer, but I think the electorate could use a refresher course.
Democratic lawmakers fought for and enacted and for nearly half a century have protected Medicare.
Republican lawmakers fought against and ever since its enactment have hated and worked toward destroying Medicare.
Now, all of a sudden, almost 50 years later, Republicans have a change of heart and claim they want to save Medicare and they accuse Obama and Democrats of wanting to weaken Medicare?
Does that make any sense at all? Or does that sound like somebody trying to pull a fast one, hoping we don't our history?
For any voters genuinely interested in a rational path to determining who's got their back on Medicare, just share this brief history with them. It doesn't make all the current back and forth irrelevant, but it does put it in perspective. Refer to the touchstone, then resume the current debate.
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The Presdient should hit this on the stump a time or two. An ad might not hurt. But the nation needs reminded the Dems are the party that has had the big ideas that have had the biggest impacts on people's lives. And Medicare is one of those ideas and we'll be damned if we're going to let those who've worked to destroy Medicare pull the wool over the people's eyes. Because make no mistake. when Romney-Ryan talk about saving Medicare that's all it is, talk. Put the GOP in power and Medicare as we know it is gone, which is what they've wanted for 50 years. That's not opinion, that's not spin, that's just the god's honest truth.