Republicans Adapt To the Ryan Blunder | The New Republic

Republicans Adapt To the Ryan Blunder

How are Republicans responding to the unpopularity of the Medicare plan in their budget? Phase one is for anybody not already committed to the plan to slowly, slowly edge toward the door:

Pawlenty congratulated himself on Tuesday for speaking bold truths. “I promised to level with the American people,” he said. “To look them in the eye. And tell them the truth.” Here’s a truth: The biggest fiscal threat to the country is the exploding growth of health care costs, especially through Medicare. Pawlenty’s speech did not mention the word “Medicare” a single time.

It will be interesting to see if Republicans let this stand. Pawlenty's plan involves staggeringly high tax cuts -- will that be enough to get him off the hook for leaving health care untouched?

Phase two is for everybody already committed to vouchercare to try to get to the left of the Democrats:

Here is the most amazing example of this yet — a remarkable new ad from the NRCC that accuses Dem Rep. Jerry Costello of Illinois of supporting a “Democrat plan” that would “decimate” Medicare, “shred the social safety net,” and “leave seniors at risk”:

The final stage, I suspect, involves Paul Ryan speaking to the nation from Lyndon Johnson's ranch.

Logo

Independent journalism matters

×

Ads help fund our journalism. Please disable your ad blocker so that we can continue striving to be the most influential magazine in Washington, D.C., with our breaking news coverage, in-depth political features, and much more.

Continue without disabling

Choose your Ad Blocker

  • Adblock Plus
  • Adblock
  • Adguard
  • Ad Remover
  • Brave
  • Ghostery
  • uBlock Origin
  • uBlock
  • UltraBlock
  • Other
  1. In the extension bar, click the AdBlock Plus icon
  2. Click the large blue toggle for this website
  3. Click refresh
  1. In the extension bar, click the AdBlock icon
  2. Under "Pause on this site" click "Always"
  1. In the extension bar, click on the Adguard icon
  2. Click on the large green toggle for this website
  1. In the extension bar, click on the Ad Remover icon
  2. Click "Disable on This Website"
  1. In the extension bar, click on the orange lion icon
  2. Click the toggle on the top right, shifting from "Up" to "Down"
  1. In the extension bar, click on the Ghostery icon
  2. Click the "Anti-Tracking" shield so it says "Off"
  3. Click the "Ad-Blocking" stop sign so it says "Off"
  4. Refresh the page
  1. In the extension bar, click on the uBlock Origin icon
  2. Click on the big, blue power button
  3. Refresh the page
  1. In the extension bar, click on the uBlock icon
  2. Click on the big, blue power button
  3. Refresh the page
  1. In the extension bar, click on the UltraBlock icon
  2. Check the "Disable UltraBlock" checkbox
  1. Please disable your Ad Blocker
  2. Disable any DNS blocking tools such as AdGuardDNS or NextDNS

If the prompt is still appearing, please disable any tools or services you are using that block internet ads (e.g. DNS Servers).