The cover to the Ryan plan, revisited
The Hill:
During a press conference on Wednesday, Boehner rejected the notion that sound bites and a bumper-sticker message will get the job done.
“It’s not that easy,” Boehner said.
The Speaker acknowledged his party needs to improve its communication on Medicare.
“We have to engage. We have to be on offense,” he said, calling on his members to “explain [the Medicare plan].”
Ryan has expressed optimism that Republicans will be able to educate the general public over the next year and a half on key elements of their Medicare reforms — and avoid losses on Election Day.
Some in GOP circles say Ryan, who has been all over the cable networks, needs reinforcements. While GOP leadership officials have publicly backed Ryan, they could be doing a lot more, Republican sources say.
The problem here isn't with how they're selling the message: it's that the substance of the message they're trying to sell just won't ever receive the support of the American public. Instead of dealing with the real problem—the overall cost of health care—they just want to shift the burden onto individuals, consequences be damned. And that's not something you can try to sell.
Ever since their defeat in NY-26, Republicans have been lamenting the wrong thing. They've been saying they just need to have more people like Paul Ryan who are capable of selling their message. But the truth is that even Paul Ryan can't sell the message: even in his own state, his popularity has dropped like a rock, plummeting among Democrats and Independents.
Yet even though the guy who Republicans acknowledge is their best salesman can't win the public over to this plan, they still haven't figured out that the problem isn't with how they're selling their proposal: it's with the proposal itself.