New York Times : The new chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY) : "If Republicans didn’t get the hint in the special election in New York last night, they never will"

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Republicans are doubling down in their wish to diminish Medicare, Social Security and Health Care :

Gail Collins, Op-Ed columnist of New York Times :

 "We are going to spend the next 17 months hearing about how the Republicans want to kill off Medicare. By 2012, the current video on the Web showing a guy who resembles Representative Paul Ryan pushing an old woman off a cliff will look like a Teletubbies skit. By the fall, there will be ads showing the Republicans hacking their way through rows of bedridden seniors with scimitars."

The New York Times
Democratic Happy Dance
By Gail Collins, Op-Ed columnist 
May 25, 2011


Democratic Happy Dance


Some Excerpts :

So far, the Republicans are increasing their opponents’ Glad Bag of Happiness by sticking to their guns. Ryan, the House budget guru, was back on YouTube Wednesday with another defense of his Medicare plan and a cogent explanation of how the current health care system is all screwed up, rewarding doctors for the number of procedures they do rather than how well they treat their patients.

“Washington has not been honest with you,” Ryan told the camera. He is the powerful chairman of the House Budget Committee, and, therefore, you would think, Washington.

Meanwhile, in the Senate, Republicans were complaining about Democratic triumphalism. They had a point. How are we going to fix the hugely expensive, deeply flawed fee-for-service health care system with all this demagoguery?

“I don’t think it’s responsible to try to scare seniors for political points,” said Senator John Cornyn.

Cornyn, a Texas Republican, is the author of the Health Care Bureaucrats Elimination Act. That bill would kill off the part of the Obama health care law that is aimed at reforming the hugely expensive, deeply flawed fee-for-service health care system.

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“They say the way to win the next election is to scare the daylights out of senior citizens. I think that’s irresponsible,” said Cornyn, who predicted, back in 2009, that the Democrats were going to turn Medicare into “a health care gulag.”

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Meanwhile, over in the House, videos were surfacing of a town hall meeting in which Rob Woodall, a Georgia Republican, argued health care with a Democratic activist who wanted to know what she was supposed to do without Medicare when her employer didn’t provide coverage for retirees.

“Hear yourself, ma’am. Hear yourself,” Woodall responded, rather triumphantly. “You want the government to take care of you because your employer decided not to take care of you. My question is: When do I decide I’m going to take care of me?”

Asked why he allowed the Congressional health care program to take care of him, Woodall responded, “because it’s free.”

Really, it’s hard to think of anything more the Democrats need to achieve total political bliss. Except maybe G.O.P. Presidential Nominee Newt Gingrich.

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