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Yet another poll shows that the general idea of voucherizing Medicare is very unpopular with voters. According to the most recent Pew Research poll only 34 percent of adults favor the idea of turning Medicare into a system were people get credits to buy private insurance, while 49 percent oppose the idea. From Pew:
The basic idea is unpopular even without the poll mentioning that under Rep. Paul Ryan’s Medicare plan the voucher would not keep up with health care cost growth. As a result seniors would end up paying more of their own money to achieve the same level of benefits. I can only imagine that including that important detail would tank the already low support for the concept.
The poll also found that Americans clearly value Medicare and Social Security above the idea of reducing the deficit. A majority, 51 percent, think it is most important to keep Medicare and Social Security benefits as they are, and that’s more important than deficit reduction, while just a third think reducing the deficit is more important than protecting benefits.
None of this is new. Despite aggressive efforts to create a Washington consensus in direct opposition to the will of the electorate, poll after poll shows the American people value our entitlement programs and think protecting them is more important than deficit reduction.
The one interesting new development in this poll that could have some real political ramification is that it found most Americans don’t know that the Republican VP candidate is the creator and chief promoter of the several pushes to voucherize Medicare. Only 23 percent of people who have even heard of the idea to voucherize Medicare know it is Paul Ryan’s plan (and approved by the GOP House). It will be interesting to see what happens to Ryan’s favorability rating once Democrats spend several million dollars pointing out exactly what Ryan wants to do to Medicare.
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“As a result seniors would end up paying more of their own money to a chieve the same level of benefits”
from day 1 – not “down the road”…i know you didnt use that hackneyed eupehmism but its used so often in desribing the effect of cuts to benefits that i quoted it..i want to make sure I dont own any of that sad, used up polito-speak .
The only reason Republicans want to privatize Medicare and Social Security is because, unlike our military, these two programs are living examples of government programs that work well and have worked well since their start. Between the two, over a century of successful government programs.
This is my take. Although Democrats may use this issue in the campaign to attack Ryan, if they win in November they will then use Ryan’s extreme position as cover for “more moderate” cuts to Medicare and Social Security, maybe even proposing a voucher system for Medicare that is “more reasonable.”
It’s true. People who think that Medicare will be spared from the chopping block if Obama is victorious in November are going to be sorely disappointed. Don’t they remember at whose behest the Simpson-Bowles Commission was formed, and what the purpose of that commission was?
This is a bunch of BS.
Future Seniors are not going to have the money to pay out of their own pocket.
They should ask if you are willing to cut off Medicare for Seniors Citizens and let them die in order to reduce the deficit.
Yes, one battle at a time.
And these guys oppose Obamacare. Now they want to turn Medicare into a for profit insurance program like those Medicare advantage programs.
How are Americans supposed to know when the only thing they hear about Ryan in our ‘liberal’ media is what a gorgeous hunk of sexy manliness he is?
Don’t blame the candidates, blame the electorate. The candidates are merely a reflection of those who elect them. George Carlin was right:
“. . .they keep electing these rich C-Suckers who don’t give a F*** about them. They don’t give a F*** about you. They don’t care.”
It’s hard to have anything to add after George Carlin but my feelings about what the American people don’t know is pretty straight forward. Just ask some American with 2-3 years of college the difference between regulated capitalism and markets and socialism. Follow up that doozy by asking them to explain the difference between progressive and regressive tax systems. Finally, just escort them to a couch and help them lay down until their headache goes away. And, for kicks, let ‘em watch the Hippy Dippy Weatherman riffs/skits by George Carlin. ” Laughing and crying are the same release. Oh, I wish I had a river to sail away on. “
Unfortunately, since both major parties intend to gut Medicare and Social Security, we don’t have the luxury of fighting one battle at a time.
Everything that Ryan proposes will somehow make its way into Obama’s agenda.
The electorate is so misinformed or unaware that one can only express amazement at the lack of understanding of such important issues. I work in a blue collar environment and I hear, repeatedly, from my fellow union brothers and sisters, false memes and incorrect assumptions.
Time and again the polls show plainly that a majority of Americans support agendas that the candidates they elect do not support. Is this a failure of the Democratic Party to enlighten and educate or is it something deeper?
Obama will race to address Americans’ ignorance about Ryan’s plans because he in all ways opposes attempts by Wall Street to carve up our hard-won protections–oh, that was Social Security only that he vowed to protect?