It was early spring 2011 and Democrats were coming to terms with their crushing midterm election losses, when newly minted Budget Committee Chairman, Paul Ryan, showed just what this Republican Congress planned to do with their new found power. He introduced his radical budget that gutted Medicare and turned it into a voucher program.
All but four Republicans voted for the Ryan Budget as it passed the House, but American voters were fired up against the bill. Shortly after the bill was introduced there was a special election in New York's 26th District to fill disgraced GOP Congressman Chris Lee’s seat. This district was heavily conservative - the district voted for McCain 52-46 and overwhelmingly supported Bush, 55-43. The Democratic candidate, it was believed, had no shot of winning,until her GOP opponent proudly declared she would vote for the Ryan budget. Not surprisingly voters in this New York district came out in strong support of the Democrat who stood up and defended Medicare, causing her to win the district 47-43.
This special election had Republicans on Capitol Hill rattled. “We definitely have to determine the extent to which the Medicare issue hurt us,” New York Republican Rep. Pete King said.
Even more worrisome for Republicans was lifelong GOP voters where afraid of the Paul Ryan voucher plan. Here is what they had to say from a New York Times report:
Pat Gillick, a Republican from East Amherst, who also cast a ballot for Ms. Hochul (the Democrat), said, “The privatization of Medicare scares me.”
“I have almost always voted the party line,” said Gloria Bolender, a Republican from Clarence who is caring for her 80-year-old mother. “This is the second time in my life I’ve voted against my party.”
Here we are just over a year later and recent
polling by DFA found that Americans are still overwhelming opposed to the Ryan voucher program. Democracy for America’s Founder,
Governor Howard Dean discussed these numbers on the Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell earlier this week:
To recap, the people who oppose Paul Ryan’s plan to make Medicare a voucher program outnumber supporters of the plan 3 to 1. This is key in swing states like New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Colorado. Make no mistake, Romney's VP pick, Paul Ryan, has a plan to turn Medicare into a voucher program. This Ryan voucher plan is too radical and Americans want no part of it.
Let’s take a closer look at the numbers. In New Hampshire, which the Romney campaign has targeted as a must win, voters prefer a candidate who supports Medicare, to one who wants Ryan’s voucher program, 64-20. This is not only good news for President Obama, but also Annie Kuster and Carol Shea-Porter, who are both running against Republicans who voted for the Ryan voucher plan.
Whether it is the conservative Northern New York district that voted Democratic or today’s most important swing states, the Ryan voucher program is scary for Democrats and Republicans alike. Romney, in picking Ryan, solidified vouchers as a core principal of his campaign and Republican Party. Now it’s up to all of us to let people know just how radical the Romney-Ryan ticket is.