fbpx
Politics Foreign Affairs Culture Fellows Program

Checking in on ‘Medicare Jujitsu’

Thomas Edsall looks at the most recent Pew numbers and says: In practice, the Ryan Medicare proposal did not become a dagger aimed at the heart of the Republican Party. The Pew Research Center has found that the expected Republican-Romney vulnerability on Medicare never materialized: in a Sept. 12-16 survey, Pew noted that voters, by […]

Thomas Edsall looks at the most recent Pew numbers and says:

In practice, the Ryan Medicare proposal did not become a dagger aimed at the heart of the Republican Party. The Pew Research Center has found that the expected Republican-Romney vulnerability on Medicare never materialized: in a Sept. 12-16 survey, Pew noted that voters, by a 51-38 margin — a 13-point difference — believed that Obama would deal with Medicare better than Romney. By October 24-28, however, Obama’s advantage had fallen to 48-43 — just 5 points.

All told, it seems to me the GOP strategy of “Medicare jujitsu” worked pretty well. Romney and Ryan did not exactly run on Medicare premium support, but neither did they completely run from it. Reassuring current beneficiaries they wouldn’t be affected by the Romney-Ryan proposal limited the damage that a significant restructuring of Medicare’s payment system might otherwise have posed.

In an uneven campaign that found its stride only in the last month of the race, Medicare Jujitsu stands out as one of the more successful gambits of a dismal summer.

Advertisement

Comments

The American Conservative Memberships
Become a Member today for a growing stake in the conservative movement.
Join here!
Join here