Political Earthquake

This is probably not a story you’re following but Rachel Maddow has been on it for awhile. And it happened. The dream came true.

Democrat Wins G.O.P. Seat; Rebuke Seen to Medicare Plan


”The results set off elation among Democrats and soul-searching among Republicans, who questioned whether the party should rethink its commitment to the Medicare plan, which appears to have become a liability as 2012 elections loom.”

Both sides will try to spin this to their advantage of course but the truth is that Republicans were trying to kill off Medicare and the Public figured it out. Now they are going to pay the price for it. This district (NY 26) has been in Republican hands forever. It happened less than an hour ago and already Google News has over 600 stories on it. It is big news.

This is the brutal truth from Paul Krugman.

”What I hope regular readers of this blog understand by now is that the Ryan plan is, in fact, a self-serving piece of junk. It doesn’t add up — in fact, it would probably make the deficit bigger not smaller. And far from representing some kind of sacrifice of political interests in the service of the greater good, it’s a right-wing wish-list on steroids: sharp tax cuts for corporations and the rich, savage cuts in aid to the poor, and a gratuitous privatization of Medicare. And again, it’s technically incompetent along the way.”

The best part of it all is that the Republican Party has been rebuked in an such an honest manner. This was their issue. They crowed about the Ryan budget for days when it came out -- before everyone figured it out would kill Medicare. They voted for it overwhelmingly. If anything, Democrats were slow to criticize it. This wasn’t political spin like “Death Panels”. This was the Republican Party being Republicans and the Public finally figured out what that meant. And best of all, people have taken to calling it “privatization” of Medicare.

”Pat Gillick, a Republican from East Amherst, who also cast a ballot for Ms. Hochul, said, “The privatization of Medicare scares me.””

I couldn’t be happier about it.

Don Brown
May 24, 2011