Did voters in upstate New York punish Republicans and the Paul Ryan budget for (a) honestly acknowledging that currently projected healthcare expenditure growth is unsustainable, or (b) proposing to throw poor people off the bus, to be joined by seniors once my age cohort reaches retirement age (but in the cynical hope that current seniors would shrug since they're exempted), in part to help make way for massive tax cuts for the top 1 percent of the income distribution?
If (b), I'd say they deserve the voter response they got. If (a), they are getting the same unfair punishment for acknowledging an aspect of reality that the Democrats faced in 2010.
My hunch is that, if one carefully queried the voters, one would find that it's at least two-thirds (a). But since I think the Republicans deserve what they got for (b) - especially given their 2010 election demagoguery, their threatening to block cost-saving under the current structure, and for that matter their enacting an unfunded Medicare prescription drug benefit in 2003 - my sympathy is extremely limited.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I think these by-elections are generally less significant than people think, although they often identify themes that will be important next time around.
Post a Comment