GOP concerned Ryan could cost party House and Senate seats

[kpete]

Source: The Hill

Republicans strategists are worried that Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) addition to the presidential ticket will cost their party House and Senate seats this fall.

Their concern: Democrats will successfully demonize Ryan’s budget plan, which contains controversial spending cuts and changes to Medicare.


“There are a lot races that are close to the line we're not going to win now because they're going to battle out who's going to kill grandma first, ObamaCare or Paul Ryan's budget,” said one Republican strategist who works on congressional races. “It could put the Senate out of reach. In the House it puts a bunch of races in play that would have otherwise been safe. ... It remains to be seen how much damage this causes, but my first blush is this is not good.”

Many Republicans in tough races this year, especially in the House, voted for Ryan’s proposal, which makes it hard for them to distance themselves from it.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/243473-gop-concerned-ryan-could-cost-party-house-and-senate-seats

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Oh, I hope it's true.

This is sweet music to me!

I hope Obama and his team hammer away at this.

[tridim]

2. Thanks for your concern.

[catbyte]

3. Killing Medicare + more tax cuts for 1% +

Tax hikes for the rest of us = certain defeat in November. That's assuming we can prevent or mitigate GOP voter suppression efforts. That is a HUGE concern.

[AdHocSolver]

20. You just exposed the Republican strategy for November.

If the Republicans can disenfranchise enough Democrats and prevent them from voting, it won't matter how loony the country views the Republicans.

It isn't the group with the best policies that wins. It is the group that gets the most votes.

Democrats and their supporters better spend more time and effort to enable their supporters to be able to vote.

[LaydeeBug]

24. Not just getting out the vote, but making sure those votes ARE COUNTED. nt

[AverageJoe90]

37. We're doubling down on that, too. nt

[NRaleighLiberal]

4. "their concern - Dems tell the truth and somehow the message gets through".

What a bunch of asshats....GOP....

[dhill926]

5. fuck 'em.........

[Turbineguy]

6. Stock market was down today.

New Order, empty plates.

[1StrongBlackMan]

7. Yep ...

Key point:

Many Republicans in tough races this year, especially in the House, voted for Ryan’s proposal, which makes it hard for them to distance themselves from it.

And the ryan pick will put their votes at front and center of down ticket elections ... Now if Democratic candidates would get on their jobs and SHUT AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY, "Not only did my opportunity vote twice for that tragedy that is the ryan budget, he/she voted against every job creation initiative purposed ... they voted against the President's Jobs Plan, both in whole and on each segment ... that prevented approximately XX millions jobs from being created; they voted against the highway infrastructure bill, until you told them get out of the way of jobs."

[Blanks]

35. That's the issue that I'm not seeing exploited enough.

Ryan is a member of the republican controlled house that has chosen to choke out the economy by dicking around with Ron Paul's 'Audit the Fed' bullshit (while not funding Dodd-Frank), and voting to repeal Obamacare over 30 times. Meanwhile a job creation bill is collecting dust, and our infrastructure is crumbling.

This is the record that Ryan and the house should have to stand on. They were all so busy fighting to make sure that the president's policies didn't work that they didn't care who they hurt.

I'm sure there are people (even republicans) out there who are losing their homes and going hungry because the leadership in the house of representatives would like to see Obama serve one-term as president.

We need to get rid of this 'do nothing' republican house of representatives. Send the entire tea party back home, and any other republican in the house (and senate) that are using obstructionist politics to sink the country.

Ryan's budget is bad news, but it isn't the only bad thing that they've been up to.

[Art_from_Ark]

39. What really burns me up is that in Arkansas's 3rd district,

we might have had a chance to defeat a Republican for the first time in 46 years, but our Congressional candidate became mired in a controversy about his military service, of all things, and was forced out of the election, leaving us with no one who can run against Womack.

[silverweb]

8. Do tell.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]I saw a thing somewhere today showing Ryan in shorts and shirtless, noting that he's a good choice because "the ladies will like him." I busted up laughing.

This is the way reTHUGs hope to neutralize their war on women and get our votes??? Ohhhhhhhh, have they got a surprise coming!

[Freddie]

28. Ladies? Probably Log Cabin Republicans

[tavalon]

29. Ladies!

LOL

[Major Nikon]

9. The teahaddists are the gift that keeps on giving

The GOP is coming apart at the seams, all due to the ideological shift in their party.

[CabCurious]

19. They've been nothing but destructive.

[Enrique]

10. one would think

Many Republicans in tough races this year, especially in the House, voted for Ryan’s proposal, which makes it hard for them to distance themselves from it.

[Iliyah]

11. Besides Medicare, Medicaid will be terminated as well

as snap, job training, Pell, and looting of SSI all awhile they are giving -0- tax breaks to Mittens and crew. The 1-2% get richer, and the little people drop futher downward. This is the GOP's future for America because they love money more.

The present GOP is pure evil.

[wordpix]

12. as one taking care of "grandma" w/advanced Alzheimer's, I say STOP playing the grandma card!

Those of us who know that Soc. Sec and Medicare help grandma, but in no way pay all her bills once she's old and infirm, want to scream STOP ALREADY when "Republican strategists" talk about pulling the plug on grandma. Get real. No one's pulling the plug on Alz. patients (or anyone else) still walking, talking and breathing on their own, no matter how bad their cognitive skills, or how high the bills are compared to the measly amount seniors get with these programs.

[1StrongBlackMan]

36. Do you think you could do it ...

with the plan r&r have for SS and Medicare, that currently in no way pay all grandma's bills?

That's what the "grandma card" is all about ... not what SS and Medicare covers/doesn't cover; but a significant dimishing of SS and Medicare, period!

That's like saying stop talking about the plan to end the meal plan (as we know it) because the current meal plan doesn't give you all you want/need to eat.

[WestSeattle2]

13. Democrats will "demonize" Ryan's budget.....

How, by posting it online so voters can see the truth for themselves? That's demonizing? The republicans have relegated themselves to a regional party. Their days of winning national elections are over.

Team Rolls-Royce is wasting their time and money.

[AdHocSolver]

31. Republicans don't win elections. They STEAL them.

If Democrats don't spend more effort to prevent the disenfranchisement of Democratic voters, and to ensure that Democratic votes get counted, it won't matter how loony the Republicans become.

[kestrel91316]

14. Oh? Do tell......

[cstanleytech]

15. The perfect caricature of what a Mitt/Ryan administration would have

them both feeding a crying infant (corporations) a bottle with one hand and with the other one is cutting grandmas IV with a pair of scissors and the other is giving her a good shove from behind whiles shes in a wheelchair on the edge of a cliff.

[unc70]

23. Save the wheelchair! It's an asset.

N/t

[muntrv]

16. Make the republickers own the Ryan plan.

[stupidicus]

17. talk about a blatant concession

that they know they've been trying to screw the pooch form the voters pov.

Rightwingnuts remain the best witnesses for their own prosecution.

http://crooksandliars.com/jon-perr/98-percent-republicans-congress-voted-ryans-medicare

[kitt6]

18. GOP concern?

This is what I do not understand about Romney's already weak campaign. There is something strange going on here. Something below the radar.

[Jessy169]

21. It IS hard to believe

that the Republicans could be screwing up so bad this election cycle. It is almost too good to be true. That makes me also suspect that there are larger forces at work here that we haven't caught onto yet. But on the other hand, look at who and what the Republican Party is composed of. They have the racists, the low-lifes, nuts of all varieties, and a class of super-wealthy greedy old guys manipulating the herd. It is entirely possible that the reason Romney/Ryan are looking so bad is because that's just what the Republican Party has become -- pathetic.

[AdHocSolver]

32. They never planned to win the election. They are working hard to STEAL it.

Their game plan is apparent for all to see.

Disenfranchise Democratic voters and flip the vote counts with hacked computers.

We have been discussing this on this blog for a long time now, after the fact.

The time to act to prevent another election theft is BEFORE the next election.

[AverageJoe90]

38. We've already been making waves on it.

All we need to do now is keep pushing. We've already had some success in Wisconsin concerning Walker's recall, I think. At the very least, people are starting to ask questions about how a high turnout still ended up with Walker somehow "winning" 54% of the vote.

[Zoeisright]

22. Let. Us. Hope. So.

Getting rid of repukes is the ONLY thing that will save this country.

[wordpix]

25. “You saw what happened to Bush with Social Security...This is déjà vu.” Backlash needs repeating...

Former Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-N.Y.), who chaired the NRCC from 2003-2006, warned that he foresaw in this election shades of President George W. Bush’s fight to create a voucher program for Social Security early in his second term, which many say cost the GOP seats in 2006.

“You saw what happened to Bush with Social Security in the 2006 election,” he said. “This is déjà vu.”

[dsteve01]

26. Well,

Paul Ryan did build his ideology off a lady who built her ideology off a murderer.

Wouldn't be surprised if that made people nervous.

http://derekstevens01.blogspot.com/2012/08/paul-ryans-spirtual-mentor-ayn-rand.html

[sofa king]

27. Grandma Hunter

[tex-wyo-dem]

30. You can tell the GOP is worried...

Their echo chamber (limpballs, et al) was out in force today spinning like crazy that Obamacare was the real Medicare killer and the Ryan plan was the antidote

Their trying to change the narrative and frame it in the minds of voters NOW. Dems have to make sure it doesn't take hold.

Yep, their worried.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

33. my first thought when I heard him named at Willard's pick

and GOP candidates are running away from Ayn Ryan and his wingnutty plans in droves:
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/08/13/682611/republicans-ryan-medicare/

Here are just some of the candidates eschewing the Ryan budget:

Richard Tisei – In his district outside of Boston, Tisei won’t win on a hardline Republicans budget plan, so Tisei has tried to avoid the issue of the Ryan budget altogether. “I just don’t think it’s going to be an issue in this race,” he told Politico.

George Allen – Virginia’s senate race is Allen’s best hope to get back into politics after his 2006 loss, and he’s hoping to be able to ally himself with the Romney-Ryan ticket without having to embrace Ryan’s proposed Medicare cuts. At a rally on Thursday, when Allen was asked about supporting the Ryan plan, he told reporter, “I think your assertion’s incorrect,” and “I haven’t had a chance to look at their latest permutation from it.”

Denny Rehberg – Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-MT) is running a competitive race for the Senate, and while he embraced Romney’s pick of Ryan, he simultaneously tried to signal to voters that Ryan and he had policy disagreements, writing in a release shortly after the announcement, there are “few occasions where” the two disagreed.

Chris Collins – Rep. Kathleen C. Hochul’s (D-NY) competitor refused to even discuss the Ryan budget with reporters over the weekend, fleeing from the quandary of the Ryan budget and its effects on Medicare. “I’m not going to get into a discussion now about a budget that may be passed next year with a new president and new Congress,” Collins told the Buffalo News, “I’m not going to go back and relive any proposal in the past because they are in the past.”

Brendan Doherty – The Rhode Island House candidate, Brendan Doherty, told Slate reporter Dave Weigel that he does not support the part of the Ryan budged that is “privatizing Medicare.”

Linda McMahon – McMahon’s opponent goaded the Connecticut senatorial candidate into distancing herself from the Ryan budget, releasing a statement asking whether McMahon would support Ryan’s Medicare cuts. In response, a McMahon spokesperson gave National Journal perhaps the most firm statement of opposition from a Republican candidate. “Linda McMahon will never support a budget that cuts Medicare,” he said.

[joshcryer]

34. So much for "brilliant move" to "usher in austerity."