Washington (CNN) - A new national poll indicates that a majority of Americans don't like what they've heard so far about congressional Republicans' plans to change Medicare.
According to a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey, a majority also don't think the GOP has cooperated enough with President Barack Obama and, for the first time since they won back control of the House last November, the number of Americans who say that Republican control of the chamber is good for the country has dropped below the 50 percent mark.
The poll indicates that 58 percent of the public opposes the Republican plan on Medicare, with 35 percent saying they support the proposal. The survey's Wednesday release comes as the president met with House Republicans to discuss, among other things, Medicare reform.
The House Republican 2012 budget, authored by Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, passed the chamber in April without a single Democratic vote and included a proposal to overhaul Medicare. Under the plan, the government would no longer directly pay medical costs for those 55 and younger, but instead would offer subsidies for seniors to use to get private health insurance coverage.
"Half of those we questioned say that the country would be worse off under the GOP Medicare proposals and 56 percent think that GOP plan would be bad for the elderly," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "Opposition is highest among senior citizens, at 74 percent, suggesting that seniors are most worried about changes to Medicare even if those changes are presented as ones that would not affect existing Medicare recipients."
"A majority of all demographic groups don't favor the GOP Medicare proposals," Holland adds. "That includes conservatives - 54 percent of them don't like the plan. As a result, rank-and-file Republicans are split right down the middle, with 48 percent favoring the GOP plan and 50 percent opposed."
The poll is another sign that the House Republicans’ Medicare proposal could be politically damaging to the party. Last week the Democrats won a special election to fill a vacant House seat in New York's 26th congressional district, which the GOP held for over a generation. The Ryan Medicare plan became a major issue in the race, with both the Democratic and Republican candidates, the party committees and outside organizations spending millions of dollars to run ads that focused on Medicare.
Democrats say their victory is proof the House GOP plan is unpopular with Americans, and see the results in New York 26 as a testing ground for next year's elections. But national Republicans disagree, saying the reason they lost the contest was due to the inclusion of the third party candidate, a former Democrat who ran as a so-called tea party candidate.
Last year, GOP leaders repeatedly attacked the health care reform law pushed through by Obama and congressional Democrats, arguing that it would weaken Medicare. Republican congressional candidates crushed their Democratic counterparts among voters age 65 and older in the midterms, carrying seniors by a 21-point margin, which helped the GOP win back the House with a 63-seat net gain.
Has the debate over Medicare made the public regret the outcome of the 2010 midterm elections, which put the GOP in charge of the U.S. House?
"Overall, a plurality still says that GOP control of the House is good for the country, but the margin on that question has narrowed from a 52 to 39 percent margin in November to just a 48 to 44 percent margin now," adds Holland.
And by roughly that same margin, Americans want Obama to have more influence over the direction the nation takes in the next few years, a view that has remained unchanged since the start of the year.
"The results of those two questions, taken together, suggest that in the 2010 election voters wanted to give the GOP enough power to act as a check on the Democrats, but did not vote to give the GOP a mandate to enact its entire agenda," says Holland.
The poll also indicates that most Americans continue to believe that Obama is doing enough to cooperate with the Republicans in Congress. But fewer than three in ten say that congressional Republicans are doing enough to cooperate with the president.
The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll was conducted May 24 through May 26, with 1,007 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey's overall sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points.
– CNN Deputy Political Director Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
From CNN Politics
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Paul Ryan's budget will cost Republicans the House & Senate will be out of their reach in 2012.
Wow. Proof that most voters are seeing the GOP as it really is and not as Faux News and the other GOP propaganda machines state.
trend those numbers out to 11/12
I'll admit I'm not sold on Ryan's plan either, but it is leaps and bounds better than the Democrat plan. Which is NOTHING. Last I checked NOTHING will not be enough to live on. If the Dems have any plans, besides taxing me and my kids into oblivion, I'll go with any other plan.
The will of the people is to give the single digit salute to the rethugs' "bold leadership". Love the spin they were trying to pass on the Sunday AM talk circuit: "bold leadership".... new wrapper doesn't change the fact that it is the Path to Poverty and pushing grandma off a cliff in the "free market". LOL @ GOP, hope they keep doubling down on this garbage.
No one can agree what Ryan plan puts infront of the eyes of all people. Elders worked so hard and put the country where it is now even including Ryan himself. They deserve to be treated well and get what they worked for all these years. What a shame to watch them suffering!
When will the Republicans listen to the people and stop pushing this on us?! Stop holding our country hostage to your big business interests!
Hey the people voted some of the most radical right wingers in congress at a point where the country need corporation to tackle the persistence economy woes. We have sit idled for the past 6 months, and true to their promise that they want Obama to be a one term president. the repugs have put every obstacle in the way of progress. Now they want to take away the stability for local businesses, and cut consumer spending money. This will scare businesses away to china, where their demand is building.
You don't look too good there, Mr Ryan.
So what. Republicans do not care what the will of the American people is. They only care when the American people listen to what they are told to want. If the people do not want it, then that is called a "messaging problem".
Tell him to take away his parents' medicare RIGHT NOW if he's serious. I don't want my middle-aged children having to lay out upward of $12000 per year for premiums and then have deductibles and co-pays to deal with. 2 days in any hospital can run upwards of $35,000 and 20% of that is not chicken-feed. But then, HE gets all the benefits FOREVER, PAID FOR WITH OUR TAXES.
CNN tell me something new. Everyone knows the Republicans don't want to work things out with President Obama.
Paul Ryan’s plan hurting GOP in local and state it will get worst
Under Paul Ryan’s plan many will lose their jobs that worries many local governments
(Some counties average 5 people will lose their jobs some counties nearly 20 to 40 people will lose their jobs) do the math for nation wide
Many middle class families depending on these jobs (health care)
Keep pushing the plan Ryan so you could lose along with the house GOP.
Wait, a poll given by CNN, to a 1000 people says everything republicans do suck and don;t touch medicare...shocking.
Can't wait until 2012 to send the GOP packing.
Paul Ryan GOP-Tea Party Radical Social Engineering to Kill Grandma Medicare...is waking up the sleeping giants: Grandma's and seniors who are scared of the GOP putting them through DEATH PANELS!!!
At least Ryan has a plan, Obama is playing politics without a plan. A president with no backbone and he is simply and empty suit. At least Ryan has something. Obama has nothing just rhetoric.
Ryan should be required to do "community service" by working in a senior citizens home and maybe he can find some kind of empathy for seniors because right now he shows ZERO.
Is anyone surprised? Republicans are so out of touch, it'd be funny if it weren't so sad for the state of our country's future.
All the Social Programs need to be farmed back to the States where people in each state can decide what they want to do with the program. Raising the National Debt as has been done over and over again is no answer.
Good to see that people are seeing that Boehner, Cantor and McConnell have no intention on compromising with the president. No matter who the president is, governing requires compromise IF you are really working for the people.
What's equally egregious in Eddie the Budget Munster's plan is the tax cuts to the rich. It hasn't received as much negative press coverage but it's completely hypocritical asking Medicare recipients to "suck it up" while passing along another giveaway to the wealthy, and doesn't demonstrate any semblance of fiscal discipline. Ryan's voucher plan takes something that works (Medicare)–albeit needing reform–and injects a profit motive into it. How can that result in less out-of-pocket costs for people living mostly on fixed incomes?
Oh, those big baby eyes, will never betray you!
Who did you survey? I think more than 80% percent with common sense,would delete Ryan into Cyberspace forever! Repubs are trying to make Mainstreet America pay for their economic "Nightmare" NOT!
"Let's get ready to RUMBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Sounds about right to me. The republicans really have to start working for ALL Americans and not for just the crazy fringe of their party. They come across like bratty children, making Obama look more like the adult in the room.
Republican: The kid who peed in the pool anyway after being told that it would turn the water red.
That is great news. could never understand why they are not working together...that is their job! so people are tired of the party of no. hope this read by repubs and they see the light!
The majority of Americans can see Ryan's scheme for what it is–an assault against our seniors to give even more unnecessary & unaffordable tax cuts to the uber rich. Politicians who support this nonsense should be held accountable by voters.
Bullcrap. I vast majority of Americans know this is exactly the conversation we should have. Keep pulling the wool over your eyes. At some point, we go down the Ryan path or we continue to go down the path of descruction.
The poll is heavily weighted towards democrats and also asks loaded questions. I can take my own poll and show 90% agree with me.
I truely believe that there are republicans with some good ideas for the country, however those ideas are not allowed to come forward by the hard right elements that have taken over the republican party and this is a true shame. Unless the republicans can stifel the hard right fringe, they will continue to find thier poll number dropping at an even faster pace. They have become the party of no, no matter the cost and refuse to work with the President. I support this President and I want a good honest debate, but a debate that leads to getting things done and moving this country forward. No is not a debate, and not an idea.
Something is wrong with the way right wing repubs think. My mother wouldn't throw me under the bus just because she
gets to keep her full medicare/medicaid coverage and I'm sure many other parents 55 and over feel the same way. We have paid into this system and I agree that the administration of it needs to be modified but not into a voucher system that put limitations on our healthcare after we get old. And the debt ceiling issue. Why is it ok not to pay our bills? THe bills got paid when Bush was president by raising the ceiling. Also by Clinton and Bush Senior before him by raising the debt ceiling. I agree spending needs to be cut, but let's pay the bills first. DUH!!! Maybe the repubs want us to go bankrupt and have to sell out to other countries like China. Maybe they're in China's pocket like they are with the oil companies. I wouldn't put it past them. They don't want to cut defense spending. Do you know everything plus the grocery list is part of defense spending, Our aid to other countries is in there. America needs aid. The repubs don't even want to help the tornado and flood victims but we give aid to other countries. I don't understand them or anyone who supports them. The things they are doing are unamerican. They should be tried for treason. The entire right wing repub party are guilty of treason.
What goes around comes around.
Really? The public doesn't like such a sensible plan? A plan that keeps the tax cuts for the rich at the expense of having seniors pay more? Shocking!
Ryan, what a moron..
Americans may not like the Ryan plan, bujt the Democrat's plan of Do-Nothing means that Medicare will end completely within 10 years.
This is the very typical behaviour of the republicans – switch sides of the issues depending on how you can use it to manipulate the voters – and the voters should be ashamed of themselves for being the sheep that they are and refusing to see the Bull for what it is. Last year they scarred you into voting for them as champions of medicare and today they are threatening everyone's quality of life by playing chicken with the very same plan – only now THEY want to cut it (they are the people you should be afraid of!).
The more the GOP tries to shove its right wing agenda the more likely Obama will get re-elected!
People want Meidcare to be improved and not taken away. What the GOP plan does is shift the risk of healthcare cost on to the citizens. It is not doing anything to contain the cost of healthcare, but shift the responsibility to our senior citizens. The plan says it does not affect anyone over 55; but what about if you are 54. You would have paid into Medicare for 34 years and now told that you will not have the same coverage and you carry the risk of healthcare cost increases. If the GOP want to change the Medicare system, they should apply it to those who are just entering the workforce and not contributed to Medicare so far. You cannot have people contributing for something for years and then say... SORRY, we will not provide you what we said we would.
The GOP campaigned endlessly on 'jobs, jobs, and jobs.' Yet not ONE of their proposals since they got back into power has been about jobs. Their only obsession has been to use the excuse of deficits (brought on by the apparently untouchable Bush tax cuts for the rich) to try to destroy Medicare. Sure, let's go back to the 60s, before Medicare! Let's drop coverage for millions of seniors and let those millions of seniors sink back into poverty and die earlier!
It is ironic that republicans kept scaring people about the so-called 'death-pannels.' Guess what: the very reason Medicare was created in the first place is because the death-pannels of private insruance companies kept dropping millions of seniors from coverage. Those seniors died poor, in pain, without medical attention, because private insurance companies decided it cost too much to cover them. But it was all justified because it saved us from socialism...
Back in November I personally felt that we needed more balance between the two parties to accomplish America's business like working together to help government and private sector to CREATE JOBS for AMERICANS. Unfortunately,last November seems to be the last time we've heard anything about JOBS FOR AMERICANS.JOBS FOR AMERICANS is the answer.And NO...I don't like Ryan's plan either.Create jobs,raise the taxable income amount(like mine was raised for 40 years)for current and future wage earners.
Aw man... I was REALLY hoping the GOP would double down and push this "death panel" of a plan through November, 2012 and get clobbered at the polls. I think this poll gives them a heads up. I hope they don't read it!
And still the Republicans march on, in the WRONG direction. Let's just hope President Obama gets nowhere near the negotiation table other wise America is doomed!
He looks worried ,I guess he found out that his big mouth overloaded his Skinny Butt. Hopefully the population of Wisconsinwill give him an oppotunity to look for NON-Union Work in the next election in 2012. He Walker, Kucinich, Daniels will find out that if you irritate the VOTERS and in particular SENIORS that vote you may have overloaded your ability.
YET you watch....the GOP is going to keep pushing this plan because they "know what's BEST for the American people" doesn't matter if we like it or not. Those of you having voter's remorse after falling for the GOP plan of fear and mis-information in Nov 2010 can redeem yourselves in Nov 2012 by voting these jokers OUT of office. I know I will do my part to try to boot them out, even though I tried not to let them get in there in the first place.
It is time to put politics aside for them sake of the country whatever you are
When the republicans were cutting discretionary spending the democrats whined that it was a waste of time because "in order to really make meaningful cuts you have to cut entitlements". Now that republicans are proposing cutting entitlement spending the democrats are opposed to that so, just as we all knew, the democrats have no plan, no ideas and no intention of slowing down their goal of destroying the American economy.
Maybe it depends on where one hears about the plan. There's no such thing any more as reporting the facts and letting the readers/viewers judge.
The part about the Medicare change that gets me is that it's only affecting those of us under 55. Since most of the Tea Party voters seem to be over 55, it makes it seem like a pay off to them and makes me wonder if they are ever going to be expected to sacrafice anything.
Hopefully this trend will grow as more and more people realize the agenda of the Teacans is not for the good of
America.
Did Eric Cantor, really say that Joplin, Mo tornado victims should NOT get any emergency aid from the Federal
Government until the money is made up for in budget cuts???????????? AND, he is blocking the funding? Wow,
I can't imagine the lack of compassion these people have, but I can imagine their greed and hate. It is on display
every day.
Is this a surprise to anyone...buyer's remorse...
They have shown Seniors, Middle-Class, the Poor and sick how much they despise America. It's so sad that we are even having this conversation, however, what happened to the Job creation they promised? I have not heard one Tea Bagger or Republican mention anything about Job creation to help put money back into Medicare and Social Security.
The problem is not that Medicare and Social Security are draining from our system, the wealthy corporations who outsourced millions of jobs are responsible for the lack of funding to Medicare and Social Security, millions of jobs gone..Trillions of dollars removed from the trusts of Medicare and Social Security, but nobody wants to talk about it. What's the real problem? Where are the jobs that pay decent wages?
58% are against the GOP "pathway to poverty" plan? How can that be?
The GOP and tea baggers are always telling us how they are only "following the will of the people".
It does appear to be true, but only because the "birther" Supreme Court gave corporations "life".
I don't see how the same people who are so worried about their grandchildren's future would be willing to tell those same grandchildren that they have to pay into Medicare for 50 yrs and then get a coupon at 67 to buy private insurance. The same private insurance who will then, thanks to Ryan's plan to repeal the health care act, be able to regect you because of a pre exisiting condition. Ryan even had the nerve to say on Fox News that it was the Dems who were really killing Medicare under Obama care. Really? So, taking away gov subsidies to private health insurance companies, that resulted in costing the gov 14% more than regular Medicare, is destroying Medicare? Yet, forcing you to pay Medicare taxes all your working life in the hopes of getting a coupon isn't?
What's more troubling to me than their CouponCare plan is the fact that they want you to believe that they can magically lower the tax rate by 10% for the richest among us without raising taxes somewhere else. His plan claims to consolidate the tax brackets but doesn't explain which ones and how. His plan also claims to end 2.9 trillion in tax expenditures but doesn't say what. I'm guessing Things like the deductions for health insurance, mortgage interest and retirement accounts would end. But, you can bet it won't be anything that would hurt the rich because repubs have decided that the only way to fix the deficits they created by giving tax breaks to rich people is to force the poor and middle class to pay for even more tax cuts to rich people.
The overreach the GOP/TP has exhibited by incorrectly thinking they were handed a mandate in 2010 makes the overreach Newt and the GOP tried in 1994/95 look like a frickin' tip-to-through-the-tulips. The democrats will retake the house in 2012, gain seats in the senate and President Obama will win a second term...and it is starting to look like a LANDSLIDE!!!
(And I predicted this months ago, before Ryan's death plan for Seniors!)
Keep bagging tea party, keep bagging!!!!!!!
If some one only watched the liberal media they would be against the plan, so many lies being told it's pathetic. The story below is about what the DNC national chairperson said on the Sunday morning talk shows.
-
The Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler gives Wasserman-Schultz three Pinocchios for her demagoguery and calls her claim “bogus”:
Neither of those claims are true. The system as envisioned by Republicans would operate much like the Medicare prescription drug plan currently does. The government would not give people a check or anything like that; the government would handle the funds, just as they do under the drug plan. As the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said when it examined the plan, “The premium support payments would go directly from the government to the plans that people selected.”
Meanwhile, different plans approved by Medicare would compete for business, as under the drug plan. Moreover, the GOP proposal specifically says that to participate in the Medicare exchange, insurance companies would have to accept all retirees. …
There are certainly details in the GOP plan, which has not been drafted as actual legislation, that need to be addressed. But Wasserman Schultz is jumping to conclusions — not to mention scaremongering metaphors — to describe provisions in the GOP Medicare plan that just do not exist.
For the piece de resistance, the DNC hurried to corroborate Wasserman-Schultz’s statement with expert testimony from Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute. The only problem is that Cannon’s testimony says nothing of the kind. In fact, when reached by the Post, Cannon called Wasserman-Schultz’s argument “high-octane idiocy”:
All you Repubs keep blaming everything on Obama. All your leaders has said that it is their mission to see Obama fail to have another Repub in the White House. I see that is a plan that is failing miserably. See you in 2016
"t 74 percent, suggesting that seniors are most worried about changes to Medicare even if those changes are presented as ones that would not affect existing Medicare recipients."
Let me see, could that be that they envision their brothers, sisters and kids below the age of 55 dying in emergency waiting rooms?
"Death panels" indeed!
The Republican plan for over-hauling Medicare is to turn it into a voucher system for purchasing medical insurance "on the open market", i.e. from the medical insurance companies who have spent tens of millions of dollars lobbying Congress for just such a change. What better way for them to make a guaranteed profit at the expense of taxpayers??
and the news is??
When I was in college in WI, during the long cold winters we'd sit around smoke a little weed and solve all the worlds problems – Ayn Rand made sense while under the influence. We all sobered up and grew up and realized what foolish nonsense Rand spewed. Perhaps Mr. Ryan should do the same.
But national Republicans disagree, saying the reason they lost the contest was due to the inclusion of the third party candidate, a former Democrat who ran as a so-called tea party candidate.
------------------------------–
Of course they disagree, and they are wrong. They are suggesting that every vote to the 3rd candidate would have went to the Republican, which is absurd. The electorate knew the 3rd candidate very well. They knew he was a Democat who had run for office multiple times in the area. Suggesting that all of the votes he won would have gone to the Republican is so out of touch that it is not worth disputing.
No, Republicans lost the NY-26 district because of Newt Gingrich. Newt was a hero to many of the long time Republicans in that district. They trusted him unequivocally. Newt knew that Ryan's Plan was a non-starter, and stated so. Then the voters watched their hero get thrown under the bus on Fox and right wing media. They watched in horror when their hero came out of the E.R. a changed man, which is what probably became the deciding factor.
Name a year when health insurance didn't go? The insurance companies knows Federal and State goverment subsidize their workers policies. Why pay $50,000 to have lunch with a congressman? Give me the same plan as the Senators and Congressman, it is probably free, the tax payers paid for it.
"But national Republicans disagree, saying the reason they lost the contest was due to the inclusion of the third party candidate, a former Democrat who ran as a so-called tea party candidate"
Just keep ignoring the facts of NY-26 and keep believing your own GOP spin.
Also, that 58% that do not approve I am sure was only a sampling pool of CNN liberals, so do ignore that as well.
Just shows how people are starting to see the GOP for the crooks they are....big business, big insurance & big pharma lobbists have the GOP in their pocket....when you look at big government in comparison to the big 3 crooks it makes the Dems & Pres Obama look like the good guys.
Maybe they do not understand the message...."STOP SUPPoRTING THE WEALTHY CORPORATIONS AND START SUPPORTING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE" you can call it socialism if you like, but American's are through being decieved and listening to meaningless rhetoric by the culprits who helped create this mess during the Bush Administration. The new message to the GOP and Tea Party is pack your bags and get out, "WE THE PEOPLE" are tired of you taking away from those of us who work hard to make our country great. KEEP AMERICA MOVING...VOTE OUT ALL GOP AND TEA PARTY CANDIDATES...IN 2012. Time for the Middle-class to rise up and take a stand...you will hear our message.
I just hope both parties would wake up and starts to work together to get the Country on track again. Republican or democratics, immigration or medicare, we need our politician to think about what is better for us NOT for their parties.
Lets see if fox news report this cnn poll like they do whenever obama numbers are slipping
Obviously the GOBPbaggers will ignore the strong suggestions from this polling that Americans don't want more teatard ideas but rather some useful proposals or "tweaks" to add to Dem legislation. Sadly, "plays well with others" is not a phrase commonly used to describe the extreme rightwing radicals who have taken over the once-grand old party and turned it into the Torture/Big Oil/Billionaires Party.
Buyer's remorse...AN UNDERSTATEMENT. They got power, they saw it as a free ride to trample on anything they see as "immoral" or "fiscally unsound." They once again overplayed their hand on social wedge issues, and enacted economic policies that favor their constituencies (the rich) at the expense of everyone else. And gee what a surprise about the number who recognize the "deny Obama anything""Say no to everything" obstructionist policy. You had your chance GOP. You blew it. 2012 is gonna be a lot different than 2010.
With ryan's big government pension he probably want have any use for medicare when he retires. The republicans take care of the rich and look down on the middle class. Its just a shame that poor folks, especially in the southern states, vote for these republican politicians who dont represent them.
Poll after poll shows the American people want tax increases for the wealthiest and loopholes cut out for the corporations. NOT benefits for our elderly, veterans, and poor cut again.
LISTEN TO US OR LOSE IN 2012. WE ARE MAD AS HELL AND WE'RE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT.
I guess the next time the GOP wants to attempt to enact its entire agenda, they ought to control the senate, house and white house. Smells like they'll be starting from scratch in 2012.
Let's hope the President and the rest of the Dens see this and don't do anything stupid like caving into any Republican nonsense.
This RADICAL makes Richard Nixon look like a pussycat.
Ah, but of course, all that unfavorableness is just because "people don't understand" the plan right. Yup!
We've all seen what GOPers do with extra cash: They turned the Clinton surplus into a deficit and nearly tanked the global economy.
Privatizing Medicare would simply result in a very few people making bundles of money while the elderly and disabled would get screwed.
WHO in there right mind would accept these stupid, selfish, childish and TRIFLIN proposals? GOP has no regard whatsoever for the working class in America only the wealthy people get their ear. SAD, this country is made up of many people and guess what CONGRESS you according to the law are there to represent ALL of them not just the ones who look like your triflin A$$!
I like how the Republican Medicare plan is basically Obamacare for seniors. Get rid of single payer plan and put all future seniors onto private plans that they select from the Exchanges created by Obamacare, and the government just gives them a subsidy on the premium costs. So after telling us for more than a year that Obamacare will bring about the destruction of American healthcare, the solution to rising Medicare costs is... Obamacare?
I do agree something has to be done about the rising cost of Medicare, but the plan Ryan is proposing is not well thought out at all and it feels more like republicans playing games to make the American people think they are really trying to save the country from ruins, when what they really are doing is trying to gain more power and gain back control of the White House. The republicans does NOTHING for the "average" american, never have and never will! Also, they ran on jobs, jobs, jobs platform in Nov. in order to win back the house and now they won't even say the word jobs. I don't believe they are sincere about jobs, actually hope it doesn't get better over the next 2 years because they know it will weigh heavily on Obama's re-election bid, so predictable!
Of course they don't like to hear that Medicare is non-sustainable, it is like your Doctor telling you that you have cancer...the question is does the majority of America think that staying true to course is going to make their cancer better? Paul Ryan's plan is sound, makes economic common sense and will benefit the Nation in the long run, while the Demowits on the other hand continue to misrepresent the issue, dither about and pander for nothing more than voter base...
I knew it would not take long for Americans to see Republicans for what they really are. They can fool some of the people some of the time but not all of us all of the time. November 2012 can't come soon enough.
If 74% of senior citizens oppose RyanCare, how are Republicans going to win elections? The only group they won in 2008 was older whites.
Are these numbers really a surprise? Entitlements do need to be tackled, but, as Rep Ryan found out during his conversation with Clinton recently, the GOP need to let go of their "theology" if they really want the problem solved quickly. The idea that you can continue to cut revenue and programs and expect the debt to disappear is insanity. If the Ryan Plan is starting the conversation, then the GOP and the Democrats are only talking to themselves and NOT to each other. BOTH sides need to give, and the TP people need to realize they won't get anything accomplished if they keep on sticking to this rigid orthodoxy. They are positioning the GOP to get swept out of the House, and they will take down their nominee for the WH with them. Maybe they are willing to be destroyed on principle ( and take the country with them): it will certainly be interesting to watch how they react and who blinks first.
Oh, come now. When is the last time Republicans ever did anything beneficial to anyone but themselves and their lobbyist donors? The GOP spent 8 years borrowing and spending to their hearts content. Now, not only do they want to limit ALL spending, they still want to give the top bracket another tax cut beyond that extended to them in 2010, including the Big Oil and Fortune 500 Corporations. Good job boxing yourselves in on killing Medicare, GOPers. Good luck digging yourselves out of THAT ditch. Looks as if the GOPers only POLITICAL alternative is to make sure they drag ALL of America down with them, no matter who is harmed in the process. Kind of reminds me of the economic collapse in 2007, and the ensuing finger pointing at a President who hadn't yet taken office, but is still been blamed nonetheless. Can't wait for the new GOPer talking points ... you know, those points which are being given to all the GOPers now being *trained* to conduct this summers up and coming Town Hall meetings. You can bet that it'll consist of numerous powerpoints of not touching the folks over 55, even though many millions of them depend on the Medicaid they are receiving - which IS on the cutting block, both Federal and State issued. Unless Eric Cantor can come up with some additional cuts to *pay for it*, rather in the same way he wants to stop federal aid to the tornado victims of Joplin, Missouri unless these funds are also *paid for* up front. (Wonder why Cantor never squawked over the federal aid recently sent to Texas?) Apparently disaster funding, old folks funding, and working class funding is out of the picture. All for the benefit of the extremely wealthy, who in fact, ARE still being catered to.
Another case of Buyer's Regret! Soonoer or later the country will figure out that these Tea Partiers are in the pockets of Big Business, Big Oil, and Big Insrance. They're just oligarchies of the rich!
What percentage of Americans would prefer to have Medicare stay the same but they would have to pay higher taxes? The Democratic Spin Machine has primed Americans by saying that they will only increase taxes on bazillionaires, but evryone knows that feeding an animal like the US Government with those taxes will only make it larger and hungrier for other sources of taxes going forward. The GOP on the other hand feel that there is an appropriate limit to the scope of government and that people can do a better job at spending their money than the politicians can.
The republicans don't want goverment health care in any shape or form. The rich can afford high premiums. Their answer is "Don't get sick" or "Stinks to be you"