Because she's a lady?
"In Louisiana, both sides claim defense of Medicare" by Bill Barrowand Melinda Deslatte | Associated Press October 22, 2014
BATON ROUGE, La. — An old political standby — the future of Medicare — is emerging as the go-to issue in Louisiana’s bitter Senate race as the candidates woo seniors who typically wield strong influence in midterm elections.
The challenge for voters is to figure out which side, if either, is telling the whole truth.
Which I will not be finding here.
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The issue is so powerful that it’s cropping up in North Carolina and Iowa, too, amid a national battle for control of the Senate.
Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu got hundreds of seniors grumbling at a recent forum when she told them her top Republican rival, Representative Bill Cassidy, wants to turn Medicare into a ‘‘voucher system’’ and has voted to raise the retirement age to make Americans wait longer for benefits.
‘‘No wonder Bill Cassidy didn’t come today, because he didn’t want you to know this,’’ said Landrieu, who finds herself in another tough reelection bid as she seeks a fourth term.
Landrieu has made the issue of entitlement programs for the elderly a centerpiece of her campaign, traveling Tuesday to three senior centers across south Louisiana to announce a new endorsement from the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, a Washington advocacy group.
The Senate Democrats’ campaign arm has aired an ad against Cassidy featuring three older white women — a crucial demographic for Landrieu in a state that President Obama twice lost badly — bemoaning Cassidy’s plan that ‘‘(requires) seniors to buy private insurance with fewer benefits and higher costs.’’
Same as Obummercare (not wanted in Louisiana).
Isn't that ad kind of racist?
Cassidy and his backers answer that it’s Landrieu who cut Medicare when she voted in 2010 for Obama’s signature health care overhaul, which reduced payments for private policies under the Medicare Advantage program.
Americans for Prosperity, the political action organization backed by the conservative billionaire Koch brothers, Charles and David, cites that Affordable Care Act vote in similar ads opposing Landrieu and her North Carolina colleague, Senator Kay Hagan.
$ome choices we got here.
The three races are among the handful that will decide which party controls the Senate for the final two years of Obama’s presidency. Republicans must net six more seats for a majority.
The back-and-forth reprises a major theme of the 2012 presidential election.
I thought I had seen all this before. $ame $how every two years.
Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney leveled the same attacks, with Romney prevailing among voters older than 55. The issue also helped Republicans in 2010, when the GOP used dissatisfaction and confusion over the new health care law to win a House majority.
Same at work today, even if ma$$ media is minimizing the issue. Re-enrollment begins in three weeks!
While Republican Medicare attacks are based on the health care law, the Democratic attacks are based mostly on House Republicans’ budget blueprint, the Paul ‘‘Ryan Budget,’’ so-named for the Wisconsin congressman and budget chairman who was Romney’s running mate.
The Affordable Care Act changed how Medicare pays doctors and hospitals and included reductions — the $700 billion in cuts the GOP cites — in Medicare Advantage, which allows seniors in certain markets to purchase coverage from private insurers.
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What if no one wins?
