Could Paul Ryan Hurt Romney In Florida?
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Florida, Health Care, health care reform, Republicans, Romney, Ryan
Add this to the list of reasons why I don’t understand Romney picked Ryan.
Romney needs Florida or it’s over for him. And he has built up a lot of good will between Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio’s influence down there.
But Paul Ryan wants to turn Medicare into a voucher system. And Floridians aren’t very excited about that.
From Miami Herald:
Ryan, a Wisconsin congressman, is the architect of the Ryan budget plan that makes big changes to Medicare and Medicaid and could allow for some privatization of Social Security. And that’s widely seen as a politically risky stance in Florida, a must-win state for Republicans.Ryan might have another Florida problem: He once opposed the U.S. embargo on Cuba, a now-reversed stance that concerns some in Miami-Dade’s exile community, which is overwhelmingly Republican and had hoped that one of its own, Sen. Marco Rubio, would have been picked as Romney’s running mate. The county’s elderly Cuban population also relies heavily on government assistance, particularly Medicare.
Polls indicate that voters over 50 years old — who make up more than half the Florida electorate — are wary of changes to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, which together pump about $96?billion yearly into the hands of the elderly, the infirm and the hospitals, doctors and other providers who give them care.
We’ll see how the polling will go, but Romney seemingly made his path to victory more difficult in the Sunshine State.
More as it develops…
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This entry was posted on Sunday, August 12th, 2012 and is filed under Florida, Health Care, health care reform, Republicans, Romney, Ryan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
August 13th, 2012 at 2:52 pm
A month or so ago, I had folks telling me that Ryan’s “so-called plan” lacked any substantive details to use as a basis for evaluating it. It wasn’t serious.
How come now that he’s been nominated everyone who opposes deficit reduction knows exactly what this plan would do? I’d really like to know.
August 14th, 2012 at 6:59 am
Paul Ryan used his Social Security inheritance left to him by his father to finance his education. How ironic it is that he wants to deny us all that same opportunity.
August 14th, 2012 at 9:30 am
Actually, Ryan’s plan for Social Security is to give taxpayers the OPTION to invest about a third of their Social Security payments into personal retirement accounts, that are guaranteed by the government against losses. Ironically, if his father had had this option, Ryan would have probably had more money to invest in college, and would have had to take out less loans…something I would expect the Occupy crowd to approve of.
Look, there’s plenty of legitimate policy criticisms of Ryan’s Social Security plans, but to claim that he would “deny” others Social Security benefits is just false, stupid, and lazy. I think people like coming to this blog because the conversation tends to be more substantive than that.
August 14th, 2012 at 11:51 am
Agreed. The biggest and foremost problem with investing 1/3 on your own isn’t philosophical. It may work well for some, many, or even most.
But it does create an immediate need for WAY more resources. Because SS is pay-go, if you implement set-asides, you need resources for that. Unless you’re willing to simply trust there are actual assets backing what Uncle Sam says you have set aside.
August 17th, 2012 at 1:41 pm
It seems that the Dem strategists crowing about Ryan undermining their chances in Fla were pinning their hopes on the ignorance of senior voters. Good to know that the sound bite level of political discourse (“Ryan’s plan will destroy Medicare as we know it!”) does not always work.
Palm Beach Post
Medicare will be destroyed as we know it now regardless of who gets elected. Otherwise it will destroy us.