One would think that they would have asked themselves how others outside the Kool-Aid drinking Tea Party crowd would react to the Ryan budget plan passed by House Republicans, but apparently the yes voting dunces failed to think that far. Now, as evidenced by some town hall meetings such as one in central Florida, the anger and outrage is palpable and those who voted to gut many social programs and to end Medicare as we know it may now be asking themselves WTF have we done? Personally, I find their predicament hysterically funny and proof that one needs to stop listening to nut cases and sycophants in reaching decisions that will adversely impact millions of citizens. Hopefully, in time voting for Christianist anti-gay measures will start prompting similar self-question by GOP knuckle draggers. Here are some highlights from the New York Times on the GOP's self-inflicted injuries:*
In central Florida, a Congressional town meeting erupted into near chaos on Tuesday as attendees accused a Republican lawmaker of trying to dismantle Medicare while providing tax cuts to corporations and affluent Americans.
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At roughly the same time in Wisconsin, Representative Paul D. Ryan, the architect of the Republican budget proposal, faced a packed town meeting, occasional boos and a skeptical audience as he tried to lay out his party’s rationale for overhauling the health insurance program for retirees.
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In Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday evening, at a meeting with constituents, Representative Allen B. West was met with jeers about his 2010 campaign. . . . . After 10 days of trying to sell constituents on their plan to overhaul Medicare, House Republicans in multiple districts appear to be increasingly on the defensive, facing worried and angry questions from voters and a barrage of new attacks from Democrats and their allies.
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The proposed new approach to Medicare — a centerpiece of a budget that Republican leaders have hailed as a courageous effort to address the nation’s long-term fiscal problems — has been a constant topic at town-hall-style sessions and other public gatherings during a two-week Congressional recess that provided the first chance for lawmakers to gauge reaction to the plan.
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Representative Daniel Webster, a freshman Republican from Florida, faced an unruly crowd at a packed town meeting in Orlando, where some attendees, apparently organized or encouraged by liberal groups, brandished signs like “Hands Off Medicare” and demanded that he instead “tax the rich.”
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Under the Republican budget proposal, Medicare would be converted into a program that would subsidize health coverage for retirees rather than have Medicare provide coverage directly, a change that many Democrats say would risk leaving the elderly with inadequate health care as costs rise over the long run. The Republican budget would also transform Medicaid, which pays for nursing homes for low-income residents, into a grant program to states, raising the possibility that states, under budget pressure, would cut back on coverage.
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Democrats and other interest groups are mobilizing a campaign that includes automated phone calls, radio and television advertisements and protests to keep the pressure on Republicans before they return to Washington next week. “We have been working with a lot of groups to channel the anger,” said Lauren Weiner, a spokeswoman for Americans United for Change, a liberal group.
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Trying to stoke that sentiment, that group was running automated phone calls in 23 Republican House districts and television ads in four districts in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. In the ads, the female announcer said the budget approved in the House this month amounted to “ending Medicare so millionaires can get another tax break?”
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