Poll: Majority Believes Ryan Plan Medicare Reforms Would Make Americans Worse Off
Another indication that the public relations battle over Medicare is decidedly not going in the GOP’s favor:
Representative Paul Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman who has become a star in the Republican Party with his plan to overhaul Medicare, is emerging as a polarizing figure among Americans.
Twenty-six percent of people view the Wisconsin lawmaker unfavorably while 23 percent see him favorably, according to a Bloomberg National Poll conducted June 17-20.
The only public figures in the survey with higher net unfavorable ratings than Ryan, who six months ago was known chiefly to his southeast Wisconsin constituents and health- policy experts, were former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
“I don’t like the focus he’s made, and I don’t like the programs he’s playing with,” says poll respondent Jason Young, 37, a video game producer from Novato, California, and an independent. “Ryan’s plan is too Draconian, and I think the cuts on Medicare he’s proposing are unfair and unrealistic.”
As I’ve said to my Republican friends repeatedly, what are you going to do to change the minds of people like Jason Young?
The truth hurts, but certainly the GOP is more than welcome to run on the Ryan Plan next year, in fact, I’m sure the Democrats would be quite happy if the GOP does just that…
It’s completely rational, interest-driven politics to not want the Federal government make cuts to Medicare so that the government can cut taxes on the rich. It’s a pretty blatant attempt to redistribute wealth from the middle classes to corporate elites that doesn’t pass the smell test.
Shocking. Just shocking.
Must be a messaging problem.
Demagoguery works, big shock. So long as people think a government spending the historical average of ~18-20% of GDP per year is “draconian”, then Republicans are not going to win the battle. That’s a fundamental disconnect with reality that has to be corrected.
Oh yes, it’s such “demagoguery” to point out that the Ryan Plan would end Medicare as it is and force seniors to take an almost worthless voucher and use that to find an insurance company that would cover them…talk about a disconnect with reality…by the way, as others have noted, if this plan is so great, why wait to implent it for people who aren’t yet seniors? If it is so wonderful, why not implement it for current Medicare recipients…
And I’m still waiting for a list of insurance companies that want a part of the senior market.
So is the argument that Americans are willing to pay much higher taxes and have lower incomes to maintain the current Medicare system.
As long as the Democrats propose to rob Peter to pay Paul, the Democrats know that they can count of the support of Paul.
“…So is the argument that Americans are willing to pay much higher taxes and have lower incomes to maintain the current Medicare system…”
That question has no basis in fact or logic. It’s this nonsense…yes nonsense…that prevents us from reaching solutions to policy issues.
Super Destroyer you need to step out from behind the looking glass…it is Ryan who is proposing to abolish Medicare to give additional tax cuts to the rich. This is on top of the lowest effective tax rates in 50 years.
Super D…
You can’t reconcile the facts with your comments.
http://www.google.com/m/search?oe=UTF-8&client=safari&q=income+inequality&hl=en&site=images&ei=AOQFToCIJ4SCNN_7lTM&ved=0CEEQ7AkwCQ#i=8
Norm,
Medicare, Medicaid, and social security spending is growing as a percentage of GDP. The only way to make that happen to have much higher taxes.
The first poll question should be to ask people if they are willing to pay higher taxes in order to maintain Medicare as it currently exist. Of course, the Democrats plan is to lower reimbursements to health care providers and to fill the ranks of healthcare workers with third world immigrants who will not mind working for lower wages and in poorer conditions.
The Democrats also propose to raise taxes on the rich (the group best able to avoid higher taxes) and pass the money on to the core groups of the Democrats Party.
You may want to look at countries like Greece to see what happens when most of the population expects others to pay taxes but no themselves.
Basically yes, along the lines of what Thomas Paine and Pres Jefferson supported however: steeply progressive income taxes
“As long as the Democrats propose to rob Peter to pay Paul, the Democrats know that they can count of the support of Paul.”
Hey, Superdestroyer, you know what would make this endlessly repeated quip even more convincing? If you paired it with that Thatcher quote about socialism. Because there’s nothing that’s more guaranteed to win an argument than repeating the same stale punchlines over and over and over again.
Super D….
“…The only way to make that happen to have much higher taxes…”
Again, your are making claims that are not based on the facts in evidence. Until you stop that reasonable solutions are not possible.
Hey Norm,
The federal government is running an annual budget deficit of about $1.5 trillion. The only proposals that the Democrats have made to make up the difference is much higher taxes.
Of course, the proposals are always couched in such a way that most people will believe that they will not pay any additional taxes but that “the rich” will pay more taxes.
Of course, the budget deficit is currently larger than all of the income taxes currently collected by the federal government.
In reality, the only way to make up the budget deficit is to raise taxes on everyone. However, the Democrats seem to be promising more government goodies paid for by others. That means that if no cuts are made, most people who vote Republican will pay much higher taxes while the groups that vote overwhelmingly for Democrats will get more goodies. It is an old joke but it happens to be true.
Not true, which is hardly surprising given the source…it is the GOP which refuses to approach the budget issue looking at both spending cuts and tax increases….of course, both will be required…
Interested party,
The only spending cuts that the Democrats are supporting is cuts in law enforcement and military. The Democrats were willing to shut down the government to stop $30 billion in spending cuts. The Democrats have been against every spending cut and proposed none of their own.
Maybe the Democrats proposal to lower the re-inbursements to health care workers and lower the standard of living of all health care workers is what is considered progressive and compassionate these days.
Do you often contradict yourself in the span of just a few sentences? If you know of any plan to balance the budget with spending cuts alone, please share it with the rest of us…
All health care workers or mainly doctors? Perhaps you could take up a collection for all these poor doctors who are allegedly about to see a lowering of their living standards…
Interested Party,
It is impossible to lower physician reimbursements without lowering the pay of everyone else. Who do you think generates the fees to make the payroll of the nurses, techs, and administrators.
The Democrats are not even trying to hide the fact that the resent that healthcare workers earn more, on average, than all of the ethnic studies majors. That is why the Obama Administration is pushing to make being a budget analysis at the Center for Medicare/Mediciad Services instead of treating patients.
So the obscene health care inflation we have in this country is just fine and dandy, huh? And your proposal to help alleviate that would be? And now the Democrats don’t like health care workers, along with rich people, white people, and business owners, right? Who else do the Democrats not like…
I like to take the direct approach to solving problems. The best way to solve the problem the government is facing providing health care is for the government to either abandon health care altogether or to provide it to everyone directly through Medicare and then reform Medicare so it is remains sustainable.
Since the first option is unacceptable to Americans the only real solution is the universal health care option. While a few are vehemently against it, the American people are not.
Solving the problem directly will be a lot easier, and cheaper, than the current misguided effort to try and preserve the current system of private for profit health insurance companies. Sooner or later they will go the way of the buggy whip factory. Every attempt to delay the inevitable only makes it worse.
“It is impossible to lower physician reimbursements without lowering the pay of everyone else.”
I agree. In the long run we’re either going to have a medical system in which the pay of doctors, nurses, and hospital administrators is controlled directly or indirectly by the government, and rises no faster than the rate of inflation, or we’ll have a Paul Ryan system for everybody, in which the wealthy get the medical care they need and the rest of the population gets the health care they can afford. I favor the first alternative, superdestroyer the second.