Democrat Kathy Hochul scored an upset over Republican Jane Corwin New York’s conservative 26th Congressional district yesterday. The special election race appeared to turn Congressman Paul Ryan's plan to overhaul Medicare.
“I have almost always voted the party line,” said Gloria Bolender, a Republican from Clarence who is caring for her 80-year-old mother. “This is the second time in my life I’ve voted against my party.”
Pat Gillick, a Republican from East Amherst, who also cast a ballot for Ms. Hochul, said, “The privatization of Medicare scares me.”
Republicans are going to have to do a better job of selling their plan if they hope to have any success in reining in our out of control federal spending.
Update: Paul Ryan voices the same fear.
At a later appearance Wednesday, Mr. Ryan said Democrats were "shamelessly demagoguing and distorting" his plan. "We call it 'Mediscare.' "
He said the result could be "political paralysis'' as the two parties try to negotiate measures to reduce federal budget deficits. "That means nothing gets done. That means we go further down the path to debt," he said.
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Mr. Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman, said at a conference on fiscal issues Wednesday that Republicans were holding back on a proposal to overhaul Social Security because they feared Democrats would use it to stir voter anger.
"We believe that if we put a Social Security plan out there, it would be too easy for Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi to demagogue it,'' he said, referring to the Senate and House Democratic leaders.
Republican attempts to stanch the federal fiscal bleeding are in serious trouble if they are unable to counter the distortions and the demagoguery that is guaranteed to be Democrats' campaign strategy from here on out.
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