Republicans ignored warnings on Paul Ryan plan
By GLENN THRUSH & JAKE SHERMAN
Politico.com
5/23/11 4:48 AM EDT
It might be a political time bomb — that’s what GOP pollsters warned as House Republicans prepared for the April 15 vote on Rep. Paul Ryan’s proposed budget, with its plan to dramatically remake Medicare.
No matter how favorably pollsters with the Tarrance Group or other firms spun the bill in their pitch — casting it as the only path to saving the beloved health entitlement for seniors — the Ryan budget’s approval rating barely budged above the high 30s or its disapproval below 50 percent, according to a Republican operative familiar with the presentation.
The poll numbers on the plan were so toxic — nearly as bad as those of President Barack Obama’s health reform bill at the nadir of its unpopularity — that staffers with the National Republican Congressional Committee warned leadership, “You might not want to go there” in a series of tense pre-vote meetings.
But go there Republicans did, en masse and with rhetorical gusto — transforming the political landscape for 2012, giving Democrats a new shot at life and forcing the GOP to suddenly shift from offense to defense.
(Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/55466.html)
Politico.com
5/23/11 4:48 AM EDT
It might be a political time bomb — that’s what GOP pollsters warned as House Republicans prepared for the April 15 vote on Rep. Paul Ryan’s proposed budget, with its plan to dramatically remake Medicare.
No matter how favorably pollsters with the Tarrance Group or other firms spun the bill in their pitch — casting it as the only path to saving the beloved health entitlement for seniors — the Ryan budget’s approval rating barely budged above the high 30s or its disapproval below 50 percent, according to a Republican operative familiar with the presentation.
The poll numbers on the plan were so toxic — nearly as bad as those of President Barack Obama’s health reform bill at the nadir of its unpopularity — that staffers with the National Republican Congressional Committee warned leadership, “You might not want to go there” in a series of tense pre-vote meetings.
But go there Republicans did, en masse and with rhetorical gusto — transforming the political landscape for 2012, giving Democrats a new shot at life and forcing the GOP to suddenly shift from offense to defense.
(Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/55466.html)
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2 Comments:
I guess courage to tell the truth will be punished. This is only chapter one. All wealth transfer programs will be unsustainable, and will collapse under their own weight. What politicians will be pulled down with them? I call them "wealth transfer" because some are the " entitlements" which cover such transfers that politicians say the recipients are "entitled to", and some are programs such as Social Security and Medicare into which recipients have paid taxes over the years. I only hope these two classes will be disassociated and treated differently. Fat chance unless or until we get politicians like Ryan with the courage to tell the truth.
Perhaps courage is a political lability. Revealing the unsustainability of "entitlements" won't get votes. But what is the significance of Ryan;s plan? Medicare and Social Security stand apart from the other "entitlements" in that they are paif for, in paty, by contributions from present or future recipients. If in fact those contributions won't keep the plans solvent, then they fall into the classification of all the other "entitlements" such as welfare, grants and the like. then the idea of savings for future needs is totally abandoned. We all become slaves to the ruling class which decides who gets what and when. No wonder the ruling class wants Ryan's plan to fail.
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