A trip down memory lane: how Paul Ryan's last budget was received.
Remember the disaster that was last year's House Republican budget? Remember how Rep. Paul Ryan was
booed out of a town meeting, but still remained doggedly insistent that people loved his plan? And was just as insistent that those who didn't love it only did so because the Republicans
messed up on the marketing of the plan, they didn't sell it quite right. It wasn't an upopular plan, it was a misunderstood plan.
Fast forward to this week, and the roll out of the second go at Ryan's dystopian vision for America. This time, they were prepared.
The party polled on Medicare in 50 battleground districts. It vetted the plan with a dozen conservative groups. It reached out to rank-and-file lawmakers and asked them what they needed to support the sweeping conservative spending plan. Ryan briefed the Republican presidential candidates and won a quick public endorsement of the plan from Mitt Romney.
And perhaps most important, the GOP learned how to use the right poll-tested words. [...]
The 2012 plan is—simply put—to not talk about the plan too much.
Ryan and Republicans no longer talk about their plan as a stand-alone. They frame it as a contrast with President Barack Obama’s health care law, which they believe cuts $500 billion from Medicare. The presence of Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) as a co-author of Ryan’s Medicare overhaul gives them bipartisan cover.
GOP leaders are suggesting members use props. In a presentation, the NRCC said members should try to “inoculate” themselves in a campaign season by using “credible third-party validators (mom or seniors),” according to a party document.
This year, Republicans seem to think their only problem will be with seniors, despite the fact that the budget Ryan presented
would kill millions of jobs, cut off food assistance to millions, gut Medicaid (which would include funds for nursing home care for the elderly), slash education funding, and essentially make every function of government other than defense wither away and die. Good luck getting moms to act as props for that.
But because Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) was willing to work with Ryan in developing a Medicare proposal, the GOP can slap the "bipartisan" label on the thing and tell America's seniors they'll be just fine. For his part, Wyden says he's very much opposed to Ryan's budget, and to the revision of their Medicare plan Ryan included in it, though he is still committed to the ideas in that plan. But Wyden is easily isolated from other Democrats, and he alone is unlikely to provide the cover the GOP thinks they have.
There's far more to this budget, and the vision for America it presents, than Medicare. Democrats only need to talk about how bleak that vision is to answer the GOP's messaging.