Democrats Take Aim at G.O.P. Freshmen on Medicare

I am not one to stick my head in the sand in respect to the need to fix the USA's deficit problem. And I am not against bring so-called entitlement spending under control. But the GOP proposals to date are draconian in how they would impact the less fortunate while continuing the lowest tax rates an many decades for the fabulously wealthy. The GOP approach is clearly not in keeping with the reverence the party claims to hold for Christianity and the Gospel message. The GOP assault on Medicare - something that would savage seniors - and their families who would have to intervene - is something that the Democrats seem to be waking up to, albeit not as quickly as ought to be the case. It's a message that needs to be clearly communicated to both seniors and their children so as to show the ingenuousness of the GOP deficit proposal. Here are highlights from the New York Times on the timely targeting of GOP members of Congress:
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Members of the House are back home in their districts this week, and in the case of some Republicans, protesters are along for the ride. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has 20 Republican-held Congressional districts in its sights this week, hitting voters with automated phone calls denouncing the House Republican plan to revamp the nation’s Medicare program, and arming those who want them with signs to protest at town hall meetings across the country.
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By focusing on town hall meetings and the automated phone calls, Democrats are particularly hopeful that they will be able to spook members in districts with lots of older voters, like Florida and even Arizona, where Republicans are in firm control through much of the state.
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The big question for the week: Are Americans just waking up to the Medicare debate, and therefore more prone to engage on both sides of the issue at town halls than during the spring recess, or has enough time passed since the passage of the House bill to alter Medicare and Medicaid that interest is now waning?
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Perhaps presaging the week’s events, dozens of protesters carrying signs and chanting “Tax the rich” marched outside the Chicago hotel where Representative Paul Ryan, chairman of the House budget committee and architect of the Medicare proposal, gave a speech Monday on the federal budget and the nation’s debt situation, according to an account by The Associated Press.
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[O]n Bloomberg TV’s “Bottom Line” program, Ms. Pelosi clarified her remarks. “Let me be very clear because we are open to many, we are listening to every suggestion,” she said, “but one suggestion we are not open to is the abolishment of Medicare, and that is what the Republicans have put forth in their budget and we do not support that.”
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Will seniors wake up? They need to do so or else their "golden years" may become a nightmare.