Thanks to the Medicare issue,
Kathy Hochul won a seat Democrats
had never won before
File
this under things that are so obvious that it's amazing that they need to be said:
WASHINGTON -- Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Steve Israel warned lawmakers on Friday that he would have trouble recruiting candidates for office if the party caved on Medicare during the debt ceiling negotiations.
The comments came during a closed-door caucus meeting. Multiple sources confirmed the remarks, describing them as "impassioned."
"He said recruits would not consider running if Democrats did not stand up for Medicare," one attendee told The Huffington Post. "He added that national polling showed a seismic shift against House Republicans after the [Paul] Ryan budget because of Medicare."
Unlike Social Security, there are ways to cut Medicare spending without cutting benefits—you can do things like authorizing Medicare to negotiate prices for prescription drugs. But if you go ahead and slash Medicare benefits for seniors who can't afford it, you're taking away the single most powerful campaign issue congressional Democrats have. Just ask Kathy Hochul. Without Paul Ryan's plan to run against, she wouldn't be in Congress today. And if Democrats agree to Republican demands for Medicare benefit cuts, they'll be taking Ryan's plan off the table. Good candidates will sit on the sidelines, and Democratic chances for recapturing the House will go up in smoke. It would be a huge political blunder. Democrats should continue to fight against it.