Other GOPers likely to follow Gingrich’s lead in criticizing Ryan’s budget plan

Daily Caller ^ | May 17, 2011 | Amanda Carey

[ejdrapes]

Other GOPers likely to follow Gingrich’s lead in criticizing Ryan’s budget plan, say political analysts
12:04 AM 05/17/2011

Though former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has been skewered by conservative opinion makers since criticizing House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget plan on “Meet the Press” Sunday, political prognosticators expect that other Republican candidates will soon follow Gingrich’s lead.

Popular entitlement programs like Medicare, which would be drastically altered in Ryan’s budget proposal, have historically been the third rails of American politics, issues which politicians on both sides of the aisle are reluctant to target for change. While cutting spending is the GOP’s current mantra, political reality says that a large portion of voting Republicans are senior citizens, aged 65 and older, who don’t want politicians to tinker with Medicare.

In 2009, Gallup presented a breakdown of Republican voters that showed that since 2001 only one percent of senior citizens had abandoned the Republican Party. It showed that all other age groups left for the Democratic Party in droves.

Another Gallup poll released earlier this month revealed that more than any other age group, senior citizens are less worried about the financial state of Medicare and other entitlements programs. Only 29 percent of respondents over the age of 65 said they see the Medicare entitlement as causing a fiscal crisis within the next ten years.

Dr. Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, told The Daily Caller there are a number of reasons why Republicans will be seeking to distance themselves from Ryan’s budget proposal in 2012.

Chief among them is the fact that senior citizens are scared away by any talk of a major Medicare overhaul. Moreover, “any state with a disproportionate number of senior citizens will be affected,” said Sabato, who pointed specifically to Florida, Iowa, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

One Florida Democrat source familiar with the state’s political process told TheDC that “Floridians of all stripes — Democrats, Republicans and independents — are rightly concerned about the Republicans fighting to end Medicare.”

The source went on to predict that the Republican mantra for the 2012 election will be: “I am not Paul Ryan.”

When TheDC contacted the campaigns, official or otherwise, of Republican contenders, only former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum publicly attacked Gingrich for his comments.

“For several years, Newt Gingrich has deserved a lot of credit for thinking through a great many issues I a serious and interesting fashion,” said Santorum. “But his criticism of Congressman Paul Ryan’s Medicare reform plan yesterday was a big departure from Speaker Gingrich’s often sound policy proposals.”

Spokespersons for Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels and Tim Pawlenty simply pointed to past statements praising Ryan’s proposal as a step in the right direction when contacted by TheDC. Representatives for former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman did not return requests for comment.

Doug Sachtleben, spokesperson for potential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, told TheDC that Bachmann voted for the proposal in the House, while “noting that it is an aspirational document with goals that would change the trajectory of failure.”

But when asked about Medicare specifically, Sachtleben said that Bachmann “has fought for seniors through her untiring effort to repeal Obamacare and its $500 billion in cuts to Medicare.”

It is no secret that Democrats plan to make Medicare a theme of the 2012 elections and force Republicans to explain why they would support a budget plan that cuts Medicare spending.

Democratic attacks on campaigning politicians who voted for or supported Ryan’s plan, according to Sabato, will force Republicans to “at the very least…have to respond and explain their vote, if not move away from it.”

“And when you’re explaining or flip-flopping, you’re losing ground and costing yourself and lot of money that you’d rather be spending touting your accomplishments and attacking the opposition,” he added.

“This is something every GOP contender will have to deal with,” Reed Galen, a California-based Republican strategist told TheDC. “My guess is you will see most of them be as non-committal as they can be while holding to conservative principles.”

“When Chairman Ryan put out his plan, it was universally lauded for its bold approach, for his willingness to confront what are going to be serious and real issues,” Galen added. “But of course that will run smack into politics.”

[ejdrapes]

Note: title to long, had to shorten it.

What is up with the Daily Caller? I thought it was supposed to be a conservative version of Huffington Post/Daily Beast. But yesterday they ran a negative piece on Michele Bachmann (that Rush smacked down) and now today a negative gossipy piece about Paul Ryan's budget. What gives?

[Caipirabob]

In other news, lemmings like cliffs...

; D

[Diogenesis]

Daily Caller "speaks" for the Backstabbing Wing of the GOP.

[RoadTest]

Just what the Demonrats ordered - splitting up the Republicans and getting them to fight each other.

[Howie66]

I think that they should sign on with Newt as soon as possible.

It will make the culling of the herd so much easier in the coming primaries.

Bring it on, RINOs!

[Old Teufel Hunden]

"political reality says that a large portion of voting Republicans are senior citizens, aged 65 and older, who don’t want politicians to tinker with Medicare."

That's why these Pub politicians should be out defending and explaining the medicare portion of Ryans plan. The part about how none of those 55 or older will be affected by the reforms. I like Gingrich, but he's stepped in it. Gingrich's soundbites from his interview will be in so many democrat commercials in 2012 trying to attack Republicans that there's no way he can be our standard bearer. When the Pubbies make a courageous decision, we should not shoot them down, we should defend them.

[9YearLurker]

Actually, The Donald was the first to criticize it.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

"When TheDC contacted the campaigns, official or otherwise, of Republican contenders, only former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum publicly attacked Gingrich for his comments."

One more reason to take a look at Rick Santorum. He's not going to back down. He'll tell it like it is, and he's letting people know that Gingrich is wrong.

[gramho12]

Republicans are so stupid! I have really had it with them. They continue to accept the liberal premise that Medicare is popular. It is not - it is another government program forced upon retirees. It's a system that you are coerced into when you turn 65 - you automatically are put into the Medicare A portion, and if you don't sign up and pay for Part B most insurances won't cover the differences.

I was a Benefits Manager in my former working life, and Medicare is a disaster. Part of the reasons of the high costs are that doctors have to wait months for payments, the claim statements are complex and confusing, the coordination of benefits is a bureaucratic nightmare, and it takes extra medical staff to handle all of the paperwork - and that's not even including rampant fraud.

Newt, spineless Republicans, Medicare - you really had to get my blood boiling early this morning!

[ilgipper]

This is what we can call a manufactured storyline. They quote a 2009 poll...ignoring the past 24 months of political events. Their basis is that this plan ends Medicare...it doesn’t. They act as if Ryan’s plan impacts current senior’s plans....it doesn’t. They act as if seniors are rejecting the plan...they are not.

[C. Edmund Wright]

Keep in mind that the Daily Caller is Tucker Carlson’s website, and he’s never been anything more than a moderate middle of the road insider type. This may be wishful thinking on the Daily Caller’s part.

[fightinJAG]

This better be not true.

Ryan’s plan does not “drastically alter” Medicare for anyone presently in it or soon to enter the program. It provides more choices for people who are just now entering the workforce.

If the GOPers follow Gingrich’s lead, they will receive the same lethal drubbing Gingrich received.

This article makes no sense at all. All polling shows that seniors are one of the demographics MOST behind the Ryan plan.

[SECURE AMERICA]

Other GOPers likely to follow Gingrich’s lead in criticizing Ryan’s budget plan

and right over the edge of the cliff and into obscurity....

[mirkwood]

[ejdrapes]

The Donald is not conervative, no surprise there.

[ejdrapes]

I could see a left wing site or the MSM pushing this, but why the Daily Caller?

[Venturer]

America has a choice.

Alter the entitlement programs or go down the tubes.

Make your choice. Newt made his and his is the path to bankruptcy.

[Psycho_Bunny]

An adult! My kingdom for an adult!

[ejdrapes]

It’s despicable. I can get this crap at plenty of leftwing sites. I thought the Daily Caller was supposed to be different.

[Daisyjane69]

At some point, people are going to realize the following:

The choice is NOT between “Medicare as we know it” and Paul Ryan’s plan.

The choice is between “Medicare as we know it” for people only up to a certain age and then NOTHING. Or be prepared to multiply Medicare taxes from 1.45% (employee & employer) to 14.50 (employee & employer). Yes, times ten. As the massive baby boomer generation enters the program. That should put the final nail in the economic coffin around here.

This is why health insurance (and all insurance policies) have maximum coverage limits; it is required to be able to price them. Medicare is essentially an insurance policy with NO coverage limits. That is why predicting it’s future cost with confidence is impossible. (There are other reasons, but that is the main one.)

While some people will gently go into that good night, as we learned of Harmon Killebrew this past week, others will not. I have a former mother in law, who, if she found out tomorrow that the only treatment that could save her life costs $ 10,000,000.00 and only offered 50/50 odds, would insist on it, provided Medicare was going to pay for it. She’s 85.

And yes, if you’re wondering....she’s a former gov’t employee.