Ryan Blames GOP on Democratic Scare Tactics

[Faeelin]

Tuesday's special election win by Democrat Kathy Hochul was the result of Democratic scare tactics, and not actually a referendum on the reality of his Medicare plan, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said in his first comments after the polls closed in Western New York.

"I saw the ads," Ryan said. "I saw burning people's Medicare cards. If you can scare seniors into thinking that their current benefits are being affected, that's going to have an effect. And that is exactly what took place here. So yes, yes, it's demagoguery, it's scaring seniors."

Ryan also chalked up Hochul's win to the candidacy of Jack Davis, a self-funded candidate who drew more votes than the margin of victory.

"When a Democrat runs as a third party, tea party candidate and spends a couple million dollars, it's going to have an effect," Ryan said Wednesday morning on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

Hochul won a heavily Republican district that was represented by Jack Kemp, Bill Paxon and Tom Reynolds before Chris Lee, who resigned last year after a shirtless photo he posted in a personal ad on Craigslist surfaced.

Earlier this month, Republican presidential candidate and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich suggested that that Ryan's plan for Medicare amounted to "right-wing social engineering," though he quickly retracted that comment and said it wasn't directed at Ryan.

Meanwhile, a handful of Senate Republicans, including Scott Brown of Massachusetts, and Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins from Maine, have said this week that they won't vote for the Ryan plan when it hits the Senate floor. But that's not a problem on the House side, according to Ryan.

"Our caucus is very unified," he said.

Between now and the 2012 elections, Ryan said he expects Republicans will be able to "show people the facts" about Medicare and that voters will ultimately "reward leadership," voting for candidates who were "not trying to scare people, but fix problems."

"We don't have that much more time to keep kicking the can down the road because we will have a debt crisis if we don't start taking these issues seriously," Ryan added. "If we keep playing politics and using political weapons against each other, then we'll have political paralysis, then a debt crisis and everybody gets hurt. I think we need leadership. I think we're moving forward. We're unified and excited about taikng this challenge to the public."

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/55670.html

A trend for 2012? Or a bump in the road?

[Grallon]

A trend for 2012? Or a bump in the road?

Hasn't this been a thread for several years now?  The members of your Congress represent the interests of the various factions that finance them - they've long abdicated their duty to work for the citizens' interests.




G.

[Valmy]

Hasn't this been a thread for several years now?  The members of your Congress represent the interests of the various factions that finance them - they've long abdicated their duty to work for the citizens' interests.

And the ones that did not are no longer in office.  In the reality of big money corruption...er...I mean campaign finance it is hard to be in the game without compromising yourself.

It disturbs me to agree with Grallon on something.

[grumbler]

A trend for 2012? Or a bump in the road?

Business as usual, as far as I can see.  Ryan engages in demagoguery, the Democrats respond with their demagoguery, Ryan whines when the Dem version proves better than his, but all House Republicans and democrats remain in lockstep until they march off a cliff.

Usually, a sane policy emerges as actual law after everyone frags themselves with over-the-top posturing.

So, no change from what Washington, Lincoln, and Roosevelt had to put up with.

[Admiral Yi]

The American public has shown consistently, in poll after poll, that it is in deep denial about the deficit and what it would take to reduce it.  There is no easier path in politics than playing to that ignorance and demagoguing any serious attempt at entitlement reform that comes down the road.

[Jacob]

The American public has shown consistently, in poll after poll, that it is in deep denial about the deficit and what it would take to reduce it.  There is no easier path in politics than playing to that ignorance and demagoguing any serious attempt at entitlement reform that comes down the road.

So what's going to happen?

[MadImmortalMan]

The American public has shown consistently, in poll after poll, that it is in deep denial about the deficit and what it would take to reduce it.  There is no easier path in politics than playing to that ignorance and demagoguing any serious attempt at entitlement reform that comes down the road.

So what's going to happen?

We'll keep putting off fixing the problem until the problem forces us to do otherwise.

[grumbler]

The American public has shown consistently, in poll after poll, that it is in deep denial about the deficit and what it would take to reduce it.  There is no easier path in politics than playing to that ignorance and demagoguing any serious attempt at entitlement reform that comes down the road.

Or, to put it another way, the American public has shown consistently, in poll after poll, that it understands what it would take to reduce the deficit.  There is, however, a vocal minority on both sides that is in deep denial about what it takes to reduce the deficit meaningfully, and politicians prosper better by appealing strongly to the loony fringes and letting the middle fall where it may.  In the end, though, the laws that pass are fairly centrist and reasonable (though highly vulnerable to unintended consequences, to be sure).

[Admiral Yi]

We'll keep putting off fixing the problem until the problem forces us to do otherwise.

Yup.

[sbr]

The creators of the 'Death Panels' myth is complaining about 'Scare Tactics'? 

[CountDeMoney]

When you get your ass handed to you by both the Senate and NY-26 on the same day, of course you're going to blame it on "scare tactics".

[citizen k]

The creators of the 'Death Panels' myth is complaining about 'Scare Tactics'? 

That was my favorite part of Obamacare. I was already compiling a candidate list.

[Berkut]

The creators of the 'Death Panels' myth is complaining about 'Scare Tactics'? 

I always find this kind of argument rather puzzling.

I mean, you of course have a point.

But when you say something like "Hey, you should not complain about using tactic A, since you guys used that tactic before!", presuming you argued against the use of such tactics before, aren't you conceding that in fact they should not be used now?

I mean this in general, not in reference to you in particular.

But the alternative is to concede that in fact when you bitched about the tactic being used before, it wasn't really the tactic you had a problem with, but rather that it was being used against you.

[grumbler]

The creators of the 'Death Panels' myth is complaining about 'Scare Tactics'? 

Ryan created the myth about "death panels?"  I thought that was Palin, and so did the media i read.  Got a link?

[Neil]

Does this election even matter?  The Republicans still control the House, so let's remember to keep this in perspective.  Don't get hypnotized by the 24-hour news cycle.