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Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan (file)
Greg Sargent over at WaPo's Plum Line today did a good job of sifting through the political motives behind the Medicare debate, as reflected in the new National Journal poll. Indeed, it may seem odd at first that Romney and Ryan have pushed so hard on this issue when Ryan's proposal for changing Medicare into a fixed sum (read: voucher) program garners the support of a measly 27 percent of respondents.
This is starkly contrasted with the 67 percent who support keeping Medicare as it is, and the 51 percent who would keep Medicare and Social Security as it is even at the expense of the budget deficit.
Sargent pointed out, however, that when respondents are asked whether the Affordable Care Act will help make things better for "people like you and your family," only 43 percent said yes. This opposed to the 60 percent who believe Obamacare will make things better for the poor, and the 50 percent who believe it will be better for the country overall.
Sargent argued that Romney and Ryan "have employed the suggestion that Obama is taking hard earned benefits away from seniors to expand health care to other people, because majorities do believe the law is all about helping the poor, and not helping them."
He suggested by dodging the specifics of the Ryan plan, Republicans have artfully capitalized on the uncertainty that a majority of Americans still feel about Obamacare.
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Absolutely amazing how many rapid fire changes in post topics are being put up to avoid discussing the state of the economy, last Friday's disastrous employment and unemployment rate news, and the going over $16 Trillion in national debt due to the continued runaway deficit spending, Larry. Keep up the good work on behalf of pulling the wool firmly over the audiences eyes here.
The US Flag at the US Embassy in Egypt was torn down and replaced by a Muslim Black Flag. The Egyptian citizens are saying hateful things about the United States. A US Consulate was killed in Libya today. Obama will not meet with Israel supposedly because of his full schedule but he does have time to go on the David Letterman show and all Lawrence O'Donnell is concerned about is Mitt Romney.
Obama remains silent on the issues I discussed.
Has something gone unnoticed? The Obama administration is already toying with and implementing a pilot program similar to a voucher program for medicare behind the scenes administered by Kathleen Sebelius. The states are taking medicaid-medicare patients out of traditional medicare NOW and putting them with insurance programs. They have the option to opt out, but with a huge number of them debilitated mentally, that could be disastrous. Romney's plan does not affect those who are already 55. Obama is doing this to seniors already in the system. If Romney's ideas are SO horrible, why is there an Obama program doing just that. From what I understand only 1 or a few states are involved, with others to follow. I caught only a snippet, so I am not sure of the details. Bears investigation. I do not trust Obama to tell the truth when we always find out things after the fact. We had to learn what was in Obamacare after it was passed. Not too transparent. So much is done in secrecy, behind closed doors. If this is true, another Obama lie.