Repugs Keep Digging Medicare Hole - Will It Bury the Dems?

The rethuglicans have a new lie about Medicare they think will fool voters and intimidate dems in Congress, and new polls show that if the dems cut Medicare like the repugs want, they're dead meat.

karoli at Crooks and Liars:

Paul Ryan has consulted with Frank Luntz and the Republican Party has now chosen to revert to their old meme lie: The Affordable Care Act destroys Medicare.

Via Think Progress:

RYAN: Millions of dollars of negative ads are being run to try and scare seniors and trying to confuse seniors. You know, the irony of this Bill, is with all this Mediscare that the Democrats are running, it’s Obamacare itself that ends Medicare as we know it. Obamacare takes half a trillion dollars from Medicare — not to make it more solvent but to spend on this other government program, Obamacare. And then it creates this 15 panel board of unelected, unaccountable, bureaucrats starting next year to price control and ration Medicare for current seniors.

This is already popping up on the right wing blog network as the new messaging around Medicare. So let's just debunk it right here and now.

The Affordable Care Act does not end Medicare as we know it, and the Affordable Care Act is not an "other government program." To be clear, what the Affordable Care Act does is to stop insurance company subsidies and establish cost controls to bring down the cost of health care overall.

John Amato, also at Crooks and Liars:

Greg Sargent has posted a great interview with a Democratic pollster who says that the Democrats have made huge gains with the American people as supporters of the working class and caretakers of health care and Medicare. That could all be lost, though, if VP Biden, Congress and the Obama administration agree to cuts in benefits as some sort of grand bargain to appease the Beltway media elites.

Dem pollster: Dems agree to Medicare benefits cuts at their peril.

If Democrats in deficit negotiations agree to a compromise that cuts Medicare benefits to seniors, they risk squandering the advantage they’ve built up over Republicans on the issue since 2010 and risk losing their more general edge as defenders of the middle class, a top Dem pollster who just completed an extensive health care poll tells me.

SNIP

CNN's latest poll:

The poll indicates that 58 percent of the public opposes the Republican plan on Medicare, with 35 percent saying they support the proposal. The survey's Wednesday release comes as the president met with House Republicans to discuss, among other things, Medicare reform.

"Half of those we questioned say that the country would be worse off under the GOP Medicare proposals and 56 percent think that GOP plan would be bad for the elderly," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "Opposition is highest among senior citizens, at 74 percent, suggesting that seniors are most worried about changes to Medicare even if those changes are presented as ones that would not affect existing Medicare recipients." "A majority of all demographic groups don't favor the GOP Medicare proposals," Holland adds. "That includes conservatives - 54 percent of them don't like the plan. As a result, rank-and-file Republicans are split right down the middle, with 48 percent favoring the GOP plan and 50 percent opposed."

So the Democratic 2012 election Road to Oblivion is clear: Out-austerity the repugs by killing Medicare and Social Security now, before Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell can take credit for it. Voters will reward dems for doing the hard thing! Right? Right?

Steve M. describes how Democrats could win this one with reverse brinkmanship. They'll never do it, of course, but it's a great idea.