We knew it from polls dating back to the Bush Administration which indicated the majority of Americans supported the Public Option for health care reform, Medicare cannot be politically, eliminated. Why Rep. Paul Ryan and the GOP chose to ignore that public reality, and put forth and pass a Republican bill in the House to get rid of Medicare in favor of a voucher private sector system, can only be answered with one word, Ideology.
The Republican ideology includes the premise that because their wealthy supporters can take care of themselves and don't need government assistance to take care of them, legislation for all Americans should be patterned after the desires of the wealthy. It is the stupidest, most ignorant ideology that could possibly be proposed in a democratically elected nation. Rotted fruit which this ideology begets, was plucked from the branches of Jane Corwin and Republicans tonight by democratic candidate, Kathy Hochul, now declared the projected winner in the most Republican district in the country.
What the GOP failed to appreciate was the fact that the majority of their constituents are regular, hard working, middle class Americans who believe Medicare is the right idea, even if it is in need of reforms to make it more sustainable and cost effective. The GOP however, made the fatal mistake of ignoring these constituents, while acting as if their only constituents were the far more wealthy, and corporate campaign supporters and donors like private sector health insurance companies and their executives.
The NY 26 special election race is a bell-weather election, portending Republican losses across the board in 2012. Republicans up for re-election in 2012 now have a choice to make. They either give up their reelection bid or they give up Rep. Paul Ryan's budget which kills the Medicare and Medicaid program. No doubt, many will back away from the Ryan budget and tell constituents they favor an alternative instead, which preserves Medicare while reforming it. But, to make any alternative meet the smell test, they will have to provide a completely new and viable budget proposal, something most politicians are incapable, or unwilling to do because of the monumental size of the task.
Republicans have boxed themselves into a corner with no practical way out. And the NY 26 race reduced the number of 25 Republican seats to 24, for Democrats to regain control of the House of Representatives. Entirely plausible in light of the election results tonight in New York. The majority of Americans, like a majority of Republicans, believe the government can do some things better than the private sector can, to include running the military and waging war, providing education to all young Americans, and yes, now, providing public health care to those who can't afford or qualify for private health care access.
Which highlights a fundamental philosophical shift in America in the form of two definitions of socialism. There is the Communist definition of socialism in which the government owns and controls all the means of production and services for the society. And then there is the modern Western definition which exists in all Western democracies where socialism is defined as the government operating industries where either, it can do a better job or, where the private sector is unwilling or incapable of providing the public need for that service.
By the latter definition, most Republicans are actually socialists though they would never admit to it. They are, nonetheless, because they believe the government is the only entity capable of creating and operating most effectively, the nation's defense. They are, nonetheless, because they believe the only way to insure all Americans have access to education is through a public government regulated education system, (albeit local government). A great many Republicans, and majority of independents also believe that the only way to insure that all Americans have health care access when needed, is with a socialized health care system like Medicare and Medicaid, with the individual mandate to participate in such programs.
The public, as evidenced by tonight's NY 26 race, will not support the GOP ideology that the best government is the least government. Government, especially America's government, has as a mandate in its founding documents, the obligation and responsibility to promote the general welfare for all its citizens. It is the public interests, not the private individual interests alone, that government is obligated to serve, if it is to remain a viable government supported by the public. There is simply no way to get around this reality. Republicans ignored this mandate of public common sense, in adopting the Paul Ryan budget to give tax dollars to already profitable corporations (oil companies) and kill Medicare for the working classes and elderly into the future.
There is a reason the Republican Party has an historical and traditional role as the minority Party. The Paul Ryan budget to kill Medicare and government services to fulfilling public need, reiterates and reminds the American public why the Republican Party has been, and should continue to be, the minority Party in our political system. They exist to safeguard the rights and interests of the wealthiest and corporate minority. Every two decades, in other words, each new generation has to relearn this historical fact about the Republican Party, after the GOP has won control of government for a long enough period to enact their ideology.
Medicare wins, because the idea of government insuring that no American be forced into an alley to die of illness or injury due to the inability to pay a private, for-profit, health care company, is an idea which the majority of Americans believe is both fair and just, whether they acknowledge it, or not in polls.
All the ballots are not yet counted, but, Jane Corwin has already petitioned for, and been granted, by the State Supreme Court a halt to the certification of the election results. Are these shades of Florida, year 2000?
10 Comments
I don't know that medicare will keep people from dying in alleys, since there are so many problems with healthcare, but people are beginning to wake up to the fact that they have been fast shuffled out of their hard earned tax dollars by the gaming of our particular form of capitalism and free markets. No one is advocating Marxism, but the truth that screaming "free markets" has become the latest rhetoric of those gaming the system in their particular favor has become so obvious that Marie Antointette's, "let them eat cake", has become familiar and ominus once again.
The idea that Facebook, Twitter and Wikileaks has exposed the lies being told over and over by an elite group of thieves is beginning to have a ring of truth to it.
Viva La Revolution!
Well said, Greg. I am reminded, yet again, of the words of that most unique Republican, "You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people, all of the time. But, you can't fool all of the people all of the time. Today's Republican Party is being reminded of the veracity of Lincoln's words. Whether they accept the reminder or not, remains to be seen, which is another way of saying, whether they choose to continue to act the fools, remains to be seen. From Hamilton to Paul Ryan, Republicans long for the aristocracy, despite our founding documents and popular common sense to the contrary.
We have a representative democracy, and Republicans seem to act as though the word 'democracy' falls second in line in that phrase for some secret and hidden reason of import. Let the representatives stray too far from the people's common sense, and 'democracy' asserts its equal place with the word 'representative', and that right quick and harshly.
But, but, but David, It is the message that is the problem not cutting medicare/medicaid. If they only tell us a different lie all will be well with their plan.
No wait, wait it was the tea party candidate that drew votes from the repubs that was the problem.
No wait wait it was voting irregularities a miscount that is the problem no wait it.... =o
Now the dems and the repubs need to come up with a plan, a plan that will keep Medicare viable for the foreseeable future. Time to look at the Obamacare plan and Medicare together and figure out the problem. Healthcare costs are almost double in this country when compared to other nations, I suggest they start there, once they drop the ideology that failed them that is.
J2T2, Dems do need to come up with a plan, because the Affordable Care Act doesn't begin to address the Medicare/Medicaid cost threat to the nation's worsening fiscal challenge.
But, there is no chance, absent revocation of the filibuster rule, of any Democrat plan being adopted by this Congress. In fact, if Democrats don't take at least 60 seats in the Senate in 2012, they have zero chance of getting another health care reform passed.
Such is the fiscal nightmare that Medicare/Medicaid poses to each and every American from the wealthiest to the poorest. A failed America will NOT fail to bring its wealthiest down with it. The wealthy simply don't understand or even realize this.
david
said:
"The NY 26 special election race is a bell-weather election, portending Republican losses across the board in 2012."
that election like the one for foleys' seat in florida was about a republican scandel. not so much mediscare. i predict she will have a hard time defending that seat next year. more than likely it will be re taken by a republican.
thinking that election was a harbinger of big gop losses in 2012 is only wishful thinking.
david
next years election will come down to the economy. if obama continues to print currency to monetize the debt, it will further devalue the dollar. people are already feeling the squeeze of inflation in a big way, in the form of higher gas prices, and at the grocery store. it's starting to look like the rest of the world is looking to replace the US dollar as an international reserve currency. if this happens we're in deep doo doo. barring a miracle or a 180 in his fiscal policy, it may very well be an ass hander for him next year. at this point alfred e newman could probably beat him.
dbs, devaluing the dollar is what is holding the stock markets up. Over the last several months, the markets have closely tracked the dollar's valuation in an inverse relationship.
A lower valued dollar has upsides and downsides. Monetizing the Republican debt of over 5 trillion dollars under GW Bush, was a given before Obama even came into office. A couple trillion more had to be spent to counter the Great Republican Recession of 2008 and 2009. It took 10 years to create move our debt from 5.65 trillion to 14.2 trillion, and Republicans have NO common sense in issuing forth ultimatums to eliminate the debt in a sudden and drastic single piece of legislation, whether that be raising the debt ceiling or the next budget. It will take a recovered economy and policy reforms to eliminate the deficit and lower the debt, WITHOUT KILLING THE CURRENT ECONOMY and financial standing of working and unemployed Americans.
You are right, there will be some serious consequences for the world turning to another currency to pin its own currencies valuation to. But, as I have written for years and years now, there is no national policy decision that can possibly be made which has nothing but upside for everyone.
As for Obama, sorry, but, the polls contradict you, resoundingly. Obama wins against any Republican in the field today, and his approval ratings are in the 40% range, higher than Reagans at a comparable period of his presidency.
Yes, Obama is beatable. But, the circumstances and candidate to beat him have not yet appeared on the American stage. The economy is improving, despite all Republican efforts to hinder that progress. And as long as it does, Consumer confidence will turn upward and so will Obama's poll numbers.
Republicans opposed bailing out GM and Chrysler. Obama saved those 10's of thousands of jobs and millions more dependent upon those corporations. And the taxpayers have been repaid their dollars lent to save GM and Chrysler and all those jobs.
Republicans have attempted to kill Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security. Republicans were wrong to do so, and the public is crap-canning Republicans left and right in Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, and more states to come.
Republicans are fighting measures to regulate and oversee Wall St. to prevent the Great Republican Recession from happening again. Think that will sit well with the American voter public in 2012? I don't think so.
We have enormous challenges to save our nation's future, but, the only way to maximize that salvation is if Republicans begin working with Democrats in fashioning solutions, and on the side of American voters who are expecting solutions to be forthcoming. Fighting pragmatic solutions with ideological nonsense which benefits only the wealthiest and the corporations, is not Republican's path to future election victories.
dbs, NO! This election was NOT about a scandal. The resignation of the Republican who left this office was a scandal. The election to replace him was about the issues, and polling data proves it. Medicare was the single most important issue in the race. The scandal of the previous occupant was old news and played no part in who voters voted for, according to the the polling data. Hard to argue with the voter's own voices and explanations, unless one assumes voters don't have clue why they really voted the way they did, in which case, no explanation is acceptable based on that premise. Logic 101.
Yes David the Dems do need a plan to save medicare and medicaid. They are raising the rates in the ACA soon but that is still not enough. The simple fact is we overpay for healthcare. The rest of the industrialized world pays 40% less than we do. Single payer health insurance is a plan whose time has come. Kucinich and a few others has been saying this for years. The inability of the Dems to unite on single payer healthcare speaks volumes.
The real problem is the inability of either party and the majority of American people to honestly discuss the issues facing this nation and to resolve the issues in a logical manner.
j2t2, I agree with you on all counts. I don't pretend to have all the expertise or awareness of the options to save Medicare/Medicaid sustainably. My common sense, however, informs me that moving toward a non-profit health care provider platform (relatively straight-forward through tax policy), capping Medicare/Medicaid benefits, and removing income caps to Medicare/Medicaid premiums, have to be part of any effective solution. Republicans of course, will fight each of these measures tooth and nail, and a fair number of Democrats will initially, at least, oppose such measures.
But, the question is this, are the rising costs of our health care system, first and foremost, a threat the future economic viability of America, or, a political issue to be used for elections? If the American people are posed with that question and capable of answering that it is a threat to the economy, then, the issue will cease to be politically impossible. As with all public issues, public awareness must be drawn to the issue, and then the public must become adequately informed of the options to address the issue. The public is becoming aware of the issue. Informing them of the viable and legitimate options is going to be the boulder to be pushed up the mountain. It can't be done, without the President's bully pulpit and an enormous effort by the medical community of practitioners, who are way out in front on this issue as far as awareness goes.
There was nothing dishonest about Paul Ryan's plan. He hid nothing from those willing to read it and ponder its consequences. The ball is now in the Demcorat's court to put forth a counter-proposal, and that also puts the ball in Obama's court. I have yet to see Obama exert the kind of leadership required by this issue. Perhaps he will surprise me.