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Did you know that on November 6, 2012, in conjunction with the national election, the United States also had a referendum on Obamacare that Republicans won? No, I didn’t, either, until Paul Ryan informed me of this, via this Think Progress report:
On Sunday morning, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) stopped by Fox News Sunday to preview his new budget, which will be released in full on Tuesday. As it had the past two years, this year’s version will call for massive cuts to social service programs, including food stamps, job training, Medicaid, and Medicare. Host Chris Wallace challenged Ryan on the viability of his plan, pointing out that he wants to repeal and replace Obamacare, and, “that’s not going to happen.”
Still, Ryan insisted that he and then-running mate Mitt Romney won the election on this issue because they “won the senior vote.”
Now I think we all understand that Ryan is using some shorthand here: many Democrats hoped, and Republicans feared, that Ryan’s budget, by proposing to change Medicare from an entitlement to publicly-provided health insurance into a premium-support system, would make his party vulnerable to losses it could not manage in its old-white-folks electoral base. Instead, by a variety of means (including over two years of insanely mendacious “death-panel” demagoguery about the impact of Obamacare on Medicare, and the systematic “grandfathering” of seniors from Ryan’s proposed Medicare changes), the GOP ticket managed to promote a health care message that nicely meshed with its overall pitch to old white folks that those people along with their atheist hippie allies were threatening to take away everything good virtuous retirees had worked so hard to secure for themselves, including Medicare (which they tend to regard as an earned benefit as opposed to Obamacare’s “welfare”).
I suppose it’s understandable that Ryan would view any success in selling big changes in Medicare to old folks would represent a political ten-strike, even if he’s now having to incorporate into his budget the same Medicare savings he implicitly attacked during the campaign as a token of Obamacare’s ultimate goal of sending seniors off to euthanasia camps. But it’s still bizarre that he’s touting an incumbent president’s re-election victory as a repudiation of his most important legislative accomplishment. It’s enough to give Dick Morris hope he can come back from ridicule and disgrace and claim he was right all along in predicting a big Romney-Ryan win.
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c u n d gulag on March 11, 2013 10:11 AM:
Epistemic closure, indeed.
biggerbox on March 11, 2013 10:29 AM:
That's funny, I remember a referendum on Obamacare, but I distinctly remember Obama winning, and Paul Ryan losing.
Public approval of the Republican approach to health care policy must have happened in that alternate universe where Ryan ran a marathon in under three hours. Ryan still hasn't gotten the hang of keeping what happens in his two universes straight.
boatboy_srq on March 11, 2013 10:29 AM:
Still, Ryan insisted that he and then-running mate Mitt Romney won the election on this issue because they “won the IGMFY, history-illiterate, and insensitive to the plight of their forebears senior vote.”
Fixed it for Lyin' Ryan.
jim filyaw on March 11, 2013 10:34 AM:
reminds me of the football coach whose team lost 77-0, and then pointed out, "look at how we outpunted them".
Stetson Kennedy on March 11, 2013 10:46 AM:
We always knew the blue-eyed granny starver was a big prevaricator, but I never realized just how bad he was at it. And he's supposed to represent the wonky side of the GOP? It show just how starved of ideas they really are.
sjw on March 11, 2013 10:46 AM:
Is any more proof needed that Ryan, the supposed Republican budget whiz, is just a joker?
mb on March 11, 2013 10:53 AM:
Ryan's proposed changes to Mcare exempted those 55 and older. Consequently, "seniors" who voted for Romney/Ryan were not approving of Mcare changes that would affect themselves. This would appear to undercut his assertion.
Daryl Cobranchi on March 11, 2013 10:57 AM:
R&R promised seniors and near-seniors that their Medicare would not be changed. It was only for those younger than 55, that the voucher system would kick in. So how can Ryan claim with a straight face that seniors approved of changes to Medicare?
Peter C on March 11, 2013 10:57 AM:
And here, we see the power of FOX News. Imagine how different things would be if the 'news' personality laughed uproariously at such a ridiculous assertion. What sort of status would Ryan retain in the face of that?
Gandalf on March 11, 2013 11:21 AM:
Every democrat running for a national office should point to California. Since they've gotten a more than 2/3s majority Jerry Brown has been able to do what's actually required to get their finances in order. Once we get these misguided assholes out of the govt we can on to the business of making theis a better place for all of us to live in.
Ron Byers on March 11, 2013 11:23 AM:
How come everytime I look at Ryan I think snake oil?
boatboy_srq on March 11, 2013 11:26 AM:
@Daryl Cobranchi: Reading between Ryan's lines, seniors approved of changes to Medicare for those Other, younger people.
If their parents and grandparents had held similar positions wihen Medicare (and SocSec, and TANF/AFDC, and other programmes) was enacted, then they'd be selling apples on streetcorners just like their grandparents did because they wouldn't have any of those "entitlements" and there wouldn't be any Medicare for Big Gubmint to get its hands on in the first place.
The more I read, the more convinced I am that the Boomers are the most self-centred generation in US history. If there's any justice in the last election, it has to be in some GenX/GenY disinclination to pay for any more Boomer indulgences.
bcinaz on March 11, 2013 11:40 AM:
Think about it, Paul Ryan, who might have been the Vice President of the United States and a heartbeat away..., makes this argument on TeeVee, and believes he has a winning hand in the health care fight. jeez, did we dodge a bullet or what?