George W. Bush won Florida and Nevada in the 2004 Presidential Election due in no small part to the Medicare reform legislation and its increased prescription drug benefits for senior citizens. John McCain has now proposed a plan that will drop those two states into the Democratic column.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain (R-AZ) would pay for his health plan with major reductions to Medicare and Medicaid, a top aide said, in a move that independent analysts estimate could result in cuts of $1.3 trillion over 10 years to the government programs. This benefit cut would come at a time when the American economy sinks deeper and deeper into depths not reached since The Great Depression. It also comes at a time when many senior citizens are counting on Medicare as a means to cover health care and prescription drug costs each week.
Those are the facts. Now, for the analysis:
This is a precarious time for the McCain campaign. Democratic Party Presidential Nominee Barack Obama (D-IL) is leading every national poll and nearly every battleground state with 28 days left before the 2008 Presidential Election. Despite efforts to distract the American voting public from the foremost issue of our time, the economy continues to be the primary public policy problem identified by the country by a five-to-one margin. In short, it's the economy...it continues to be the economy...and it will forever be the economy that constitutes the narrative leading up to Election Day 2008.
This latest program proposal by McCain, however, throws an additional albatross around the neck of the Republican Party's presidential candidate. He desperately needs to carry Florida and Nevada to have any chance of winning enough electoral votes to become America's next president. Nearly one out of every five voters in Florida is eligible to receive Medicare benefits under the current program. The State of Nevada features voting senior citizens that comprise nearly 15% of the population. These voters are traditionally the most reliable where getting to the polls on Election Day is concerned. McCain is already trailing (albeit by a small margin) in these two must-win states. Does he truly believe that cutting essential Medicare benefits for senior citizens will help him carry Florida and Nevada in November.
Much has been said and written about Republican George W. Bush's supposed lack of intelligence or skills of deduction. Some have gone so far as to call him "stupid". However, even Bush understood that you do not win elections by proposing to cut off the lifeblood of a large, reliable voting bloc like senior citizens. That is tantamount to trying to win over single moms by raising taxes on child care nationwide. John McCain has proposed dangerous and destructive cuts to an essential federal program at a time when the American people need help the most - and in doing so, he may just have cut himself out of the 2008 Presidential Election.
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