Today in the Washington Post, RNC chairman Michael Steele writes, “Republicans want reform that should, first, do no harm, especially to our seniors. That is why Republicans support a Seniors’ Health Care Bill of Rights, which we are introducing today, to ensure that our greatest generation will receive access to quality health care. We also believe that any health-care reform should be fully paid for, but not funded on the backs of our nation’s senior citizens.”
The classic Bill of Rights has ten provisions; the RNC version for seniors only requires six.
While reading Steele’s senior-centered argument, I wondered if he has been listening to Dick Morris:
The Democratic Party is built on six pillars — blacks, Latinos, single women, young people, union members, and the elderly. If legislation threatens one of those pillars, it threatens the stability of the entire partisan structure. And Obama’s health care reform seems to do just that . . . With 40 percent of the savings in medical spending coming from Medicare, the senior citizens of America are coming to see the Obama proposals as an assault on their health care system. Since their needs are fully met by Medicare, they see no need for monkeying with the system and are highly suspicious of any changes. When they watch as their fellow seniors attend town meetings to protest to their Congressmen about these cuts and are labeled “un-American” for their pains, their alienation from the Democrats just grows. The fissure Obama is driving between his party and the elderly will not soon heal. When the elderly change their voting habits, they tend to do so for a very, very long time. Even Senators who are up in 2012 or 2014 should worry that their votes for the Obama plan could doom their ability to attract elderly support.