GOP faces hostility at home over Medicare cuts; Senate Dems...

[cal04]

GOP faces hostility at home over Medicare cuts; Senate Dems... rush to provide cover?
by David Waldman
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/22/969268/-GOP-faces-hostility-at-home-over-Medicare-cuts

I suppose it's somewhat noble that Senate Democrats have largely elected not to kick Republicans while they're down, but when have we ever seen the favor returned?

Congressional Republicans have walked into the unforced error of having endorsed the Ryan budget's demolition of Medicare, and voters are reacting with hostility at town hall meetings taking place over the two-week recess.

Surely no one has forgotten the highly choreographed hostility during the health care town hall meetings during the summer of 2009. But the current activity doesn't appear to be coordinated in any coherent fashion, beyond the fact that the news that the Republican budget disassembles Medicare tends to strike a chord with a certain demographic.

It's got to make you wonder, though, how much more potent the push-back (both outside the Beltway and inside Congress) could be if there had been some effort expended on coordinating it. Seems like something of a missed opportunity, doesn't it? Because instead of seeing Congressional Democrats leveraging the rising opposition, we're seeing them falling all over themselves to join one "gang" or another, each aimed, it would seem, at heaping still more benefit cuts on top of the rising fire fueled by the Ryan budget.

I'm sure the thinking is that Dems come off looking "serious" and "reasonable" by looking to "meet Republicans in the middle" here. But predictably, as Dems move to "meet Republicans in the middle," Republicans are instead already moving to the right:

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) poses a significant obstacle to any bipartisan deficit reduction deal in the Senate that would raise taxes, according to Senate aides and activists.

Hatch would have significant say over any deficit-reduction as ranking Republican on the Senate Finance panel, which has jurisdiction over taxes, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

He told conservative activists shortly before the April recess that he would oppose any deficit-reduction package that raises taxes, period.

I have little doubt but that a significant number of Senate Republicans will be joining Hatch there. And the Senate being what it is (i.e., a dysfunctional body, ruled by minority veto power), it's a fair guess that it won't matter much what "reasonable" Dems work out with their supposed "gang" partners, because "the middle" won't be there anymore by the time they work out their "deals."

But if the game is to appear like you're working towards something, I guess we've got that covered. Unless the rest of the world has realized by now that these exercises don't actually pan out. So far, though, no apparent danger of The Village media catching on to that.

(more at link
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[Scuba]

1. I'm for kicking them all the way back to their gated communities and replacing them ....

...with some decent People.

[freshwest]

4. X 1,000,000

[msongs]

2. "somewhat noble"? No it is cowardly and a stab in the back to democrats who value Medicare and SS nt

[iwishiwas]

3. Dems will not kick em cause they will be joining them (repugs) in cuts.

[OwnedByFerrets]

5. Democrats in Washington are political idiots...always have been