Ryan’s First Crucial Medicare Test

23 May 2011 |permalink | email article

In New York’s 26th District which is heavily Republican a special election takes place tomorrow which will highlight the two parties’ visions of government? What once appeared to be a shoo-in for GOP Assemblywoman Jane Corwin has now become a struggle to defend a highly unpopular plan of phasing out Medicare pushed by House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan.

Democrat Kathleen Hochul, the Erie County clerk, has made the race very competitive and in a debate last week repeatedly accused Corwin of supporting a House Republican plan to create a voucher system, which, she said, would effectively :decimate” Medicare. House Republicans, caught up in an ideological moment, failed to anticipate the inevitable voter backlash.

Polling shows that 8 in 10 Americans dislike the Ryan plan and Democrats say that now and going forward the three top issues are “Medicare, Medicare and Medicare.” Should Hochul win haunted Republicans will have plenty to worry about in trying to retain control of the House in 2012.

Personal Privilege: Twitter Trap

Bill Keller, executive editor of The New York Times, arguing that the most obvious drawback of social media is that they are aggressive distractions: “My mistrust of social media is intensified by the ephemeral nature of these communications. They are the epitome of in-one-ear-out-and-out-the other, which was my mother’s trope for a failure to connect….”I’m not even sure these instruments are genuinely “social.” There is something decidedly faux about the camaraderie of Facebook, something illusory about the connectedness of Twitter.

Quotable

“What I’ve said to our members is we’re not going to be able to coalesce behind just one [plan]” – Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, saying while he will vote for Rep. Paul Ryan’s controversial budget plan, he’s not saying he will endorse all of its provisions and his support for Medicare changes is tepid.

“Leaders are elected to lead. I don’t consult polls to tell me what my principals are or what my policies should be. Leaders change the polls.” – Ryan on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“What the Irish liked about the queen’s speech was that, after 800 years of bloodshed, hatred and tortured negotiations between Ireland and England, both sides were able to accept their separate but entwined identities.” – Maureen Dowd, describing the detente between the two nations, quoting James Joyce in i>“Ulysses” that the Irish are always trying to awaken, and have now woken up, whenever green is worn and seen all changed, changed utterly. 

141