Quote of the Day, Ryan Plan Politics Edition
The bungled politics of the Ryan plan.
“No one could have predicted that 4 trillion in tax cuts for the rich while gutting Medicare and doing nothing to balance the budget would have been unpopuar with the public. It’s a mystery!”
— John Cole
It’s a little too early to see how things shake out, but the April 15 vote on the Ryan Plan will, I think, one day go down in history as a textbook example of the dangers of believing your own hype. How the House Republicans went from having a major campaign themes demonizing the Democrats for cutting Medicare funding to, less than a year later, overwhelming voting for a plan that pretty much ends Medicare as we know it is an absolute mystery.
Merits of the policy aside (though for the record it’s poorly thought out and imprudent), how the GOP bungled the politics of it all is nothing short of breathtaking.
You have to give it to Republicans, they jump first and ask questions later. I know many liberals that wish that Democrats would govern with this much hubris. I mean in the past half decade we’ve seen GWB try to slip through the privatization of SS without nary a mention during his re-election battle the year before and now the GOP as a whole trying to change Medicare with even more chutzpah by just campaigning against any cuts a year before.
they don’t call it “the stupid party” for nuttin’…
no mystery here. GOP politics have slowly become detached from their actual policy goals. Republicans never intended to preserve Medicare, it was just a campaign slogan. I really don’t know why you would vote for a party that’s policy positions are not what they actually campaign on.