Medicare is a key issue in the 2012 election, up and down the ballot, and it deserves to be. The Republican plan to end the Medicare system and replace it with a privatized voucher scheme for future retirees is critically important.
But as we've talked about for months, it's Medicaid that too often gets lost in the shuffle, which is to the public's detriment -- the differences between the parties on this issue are among the critical of 2012. Indeed, the Obama campaign launched this new ad on Medicaid overnight.
For those who can't watch clips online, here's the transcript of the 30-second spot:
"It's one of the hardest decisions a family can make -- realizing a nursing home is the only choice. For many middle class families, Medicaid is the only way to afford the care. But as a governor, Mitt Romney raised nursing home fees eight times. And as president, his budget cuts Medicaid by one-third and burdens families with the cost of nursing home care. We have a president who won't let that happen."
The ad, titled "Only Choice," will be aired in the eight key battleground states: New Hampshire, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Iowa, Colorado, and Nevada.
As a stylistic matter, I suspect an ad like this is intended, in a not-so-subtle way, to make Romney appear callous and indifferent to the need of seniors and struggling families. If last week's debate helped erase fears about Romney's elitist attitudes -- fears reinforced by the infamous "47 percent" video -- an ad like this is intended to help remind voters about what they didn't like about Romney in the first place.
But let's also not forget the substance, and the extent to which President Obama and Romney offer dramatically different approaches to this critical health care lifeline.
To reiterate a point we discussed last month, Romney and Paul Ryan are not at all bashful about their plan to block-grant Medicaid, leaving states with fewer resources, and leaving the poor and disabled in even more jeopardy.
Remember, unlike Medicare, Medicaid is a partnership between federal and state governments. The program undermines state budgets in a big way during economic downturns -- more people begin to rely on the program and states, which can't run deficits, struggle badly with the finances -- and the moment a Romney-Ryan administration gives states the flexibility to do so, Republicans governors will start improving their finances by taking health care from the most vulnerable, who don't exactly have lobbyists looking out for them.
Obama made the case on this during last week's debate:
"As I indicated before, when you talk about shifting Medicaid to states, we're talking about potentially a 30 percent cut in Medicaid over time. Now, you know, that may not seem like a big deal when it just is, you know, numbers on a sheet of paper, but if we're talking about a family who's got an autistic kid and is depending on that Medicaid, that's a big problem. And governors are creative. There's no doubt about it. But they're not creative enough to make up for 30 percent of revenue on something like Medicaid. What ends up happening is some people end up not getting help."
There's no shortage of policy differences between the two major-party campaigns, but this is one of the more important areas of disagreement, especially as it relates to the real-world impact of struggling Americans. Medicaid deserves to be an important part of the national debate, and this ad is a step in the right direction.
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There is no question that this election offers two competing visions for America. The Republican ticket refuses to come clean on their proposals and tell Americans the truth. You cannot argue that Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and the Republican Party truly believe this country is in decline and must be made a smaller and weaker country to appease the Tea Party radicals that want to destroy our government. Mitt thinks that success can only, translate to wealth, from fortunes to the number of cars or homes you own, that if you haven't gotten rich by now than something is wrong with you and you don;t deserve a shot at the American Dream. This is a message paid for by the rich secret donors and corporate money men backing Romney's campaign, - progressive
It is sad to me that all any politician has is scare tactics. That is all this is. It may be based on facts, but this is an "you are fu#$%d if the other guy wins" ad. And we wonder why so many people are completely tuned out of politics. The sad thing is that this is the kind of ad that moves the needle, and thus these kind of ads will continue to be campaign mainstays.
This is one of the most important issues of our time, and the ad is based on the facts of what would actually happen to people. You might want to get to know some middle class people who struggle with what to do when their parents are too old to live at home. People need to know about this issue, and this ad is truthful and informative.
How do you create political ads against Romney's positions when he either refuses to state his positions or changes them daily? What do you suggest?
@duebee I am not arguing that the issue isn't important, just that this "the world is going to end if the other guy is elected" mantra in so many campaign commercials is over the top and I think it turns a lot of people off.
@MsJoanne - If I was making ads against Romney, I would simply do dual screen ads of Romney's own words throughout the years. Romney of old versus Romney of new and have him contradicting himself. Romney has changed his positions so much, I would just make an ad showing that he will say anything, and end it with "Who is the real Romney? He wants you to elect him to be President, and then he will tell you. Can we really trust someone who has no moral compass?"
The very next sentence.
By your own admission, scare tactics is not all this ad has. It uses facts, yet you still have a problem with it. Your comment sounds rather concern trollish.
Old People are well past their "use by" date, and we can no longer afford to support them. Like rest of the 47%, it is time to cut them loose.
Besides, the Department of Defense needs the money.
(Before replying, check the batteries in your SnarkOmeter.)
Fla. has again cut funding for the poor by increasing fees to access services for the mentally retarded, and outsourcing more of medicaid funding to private insurers, and has cut funding to mental health clinics. With increasing privatizing of the prison system the mentally ill will be an even larger percentage of the prison system. What could possibly go wrong giving GOP run states more control over the healthcare dollars for the needy?
Bending the arc of cost for chronic health care needs is a fiscal necessity. How it gets done is politics. Keep in mind that republicans have been against all social spending since for ever. How can they be trusted to even be part of the conversation as anything they have offered is to kill the basic programs that provide the coverage?
That point should be hammered home ever time a gop opens their mouth to claim they care , or are some how FOR programs like this , dems are willfully missing that hammer to many times to count
There ARE two basic ideas for governance in America - and have been since the beginning of America, of course. We tug back and forth between them and, since nobody ever really "wins" the tug-o-war on a permanent basis, the outcome until the present day has been a basically moderate, centrist attitude toward both social justice and economic laissez faire.
The reason we're having such trouble with the whole structure this time is twofold:
1) the 24/7/365 nature of our media, which has to have something "newsworthy" - or at least sensational - to report in every cycle. We never used to have all this constant bloviation/spin/lie/counterlie/factcheck/up-the-ante confusion among primary source reporting, op-ed and political spin when there were only daily newspapers and nightly network news to inform the public.
2) Citizens' United has pumped untold and anonymous scads (that is a highly technical term) of money into our political process - which has enabled people like the Koch brothers and Sheldon Adelson to, effectively, buy the election of and for Mitt Romney and other candidates.
This is insidious as well as dangerous: the rich guys OWN the media outlets as well as the means by which to "elect" the candidates - and therefor can tilt the way by which we govern toward their side, permanently. That's called fascism.
Excellent observations, madam!
However, the Kochs et al are not entirely to blame. That 24/7 TeeVee is the same device that sells gullible American scads (highly technical term) of Stuff They Don't Need. "But wait! There's more!"
These are the same Americans who believe that the sun revolves around the 6000 year old earth, UFO's, and the current POTUS is a Kenyan Muslim.
As Pogo reminds us, We have met the enemy, and he is us.
Mr. DAY: it's a self-fulfilling cycle, good sir. The elite rich fellows really WANT a relatively young/poor/stupid/tractable working class which will pay their taxes and reproduce quickly; then die off without troubling them for more than constant entertainment (bread and circuses).
My personal purpose is to do my darnedest to screw up that plan. Are you in?
The states are running the red now and the teapubs want to push everything on the states. Of course, the federal government will still have the same taxes collected and the states won't get what they need, but the Congresscritters will still get their perks and make sure big business and the rich still gets their welfare.
The teapubs are trying to turn this country into Europe. The states will be little countries and the government will make the money, but also tell the states what they can and can't do, and still collect the same or likely, more taxes. If the states are going to run themselves, what do we need the federal government for?
+1 Phenner
Mitt and the teapubs keep saying that the states should have the ability to make their own choice.
What they really mean is that they are going to cut federal taxes and then cut the amounts they send to the states. The states will have to cut programs or raise taxes. In the end the people will get screwed.
Romney is callous and indifferent to the needs of our seniors and struggling families. We know this to be true by reading the script laid out before us by the Republican party. The people who cheered and applauded at the thought of a dying person who had no insurance, made that very clear to the 47%,and to the 99%. Helping people doesn't seem to bother the thousands of workers who, everyday take the time to nurture and care for our loved ones. Why does it bother the Large Corporations? The ones calling all the shots and providing all these wonderful harsh cold judgements. Their drug supply(money) is dwindling a bit, they are hungry they want more so they decided the best way to get more dirty money is to privatize. They're looking for ways to funnel the tax payer's money to them and their new friends, the Republicans. They made promises they showed them how to do it, now let's see how far they try to go with their hidden agenda. Maybe we could help them by shutting down all their privatized businesses. Then they would have to start making money the old fashioned way, by earning it.
Come on grandma, you can't take it with you so give it to the nursing home..and the doctor and the drug company and....
Viva the republic and the corporate greed for which it stands(and falls).
And look at the bright side, grams. Once you "see the light" you won't have to pay taxes anymore. Isn't that the moment you've been living for?
I've said it before, and will continue to say it: folks better spread the word:
1. If you don't have the money for Grandma/Grandpa's nursing home bill - you have no business voting for Romney/Ryan.
2. If you don't have the room in your house, or the manpower in your home for the care that Grandma/Grandpa get at the nursing home and will now be getting at YOUR HOME once they are thrown out of the nursing home- you have no business voting for Romney/Ryan.
3. If you know someone who has a disabled child/disabled adult in their family - if they don't have the funds to pay for what Medicaid does - you have no business voting for Romney/Ryan.
4. If you have a soul and the thought of MILLIONS of poor children being without access to healthcare turns your stomach - you have no busines voting for Romney/Ryan.
I don't mind society taking care of Grandma/Grandpa or the disabled, but I'm tired of Shanequa and Rosa Maria being the scapegoats for medicaid, when, in terms of PERCENTAGES OF MEDICAID DOLLARS - the top two recipients are the Elderly and the Disabled.
So, the millions of WHITE FOLKS who get helped by Medicaid - BETTER WAKE THE F--- UP
rikyra , you just wrote obamas lines for the next debate
CBS did a piece on this , a father who was a teacher for 30 years , mother an accountant , worked saved all their lives , 5 kids , elderly and disabled now , had to sell everything , retirement , savings , life insurance , house , to pay nursing home bills , then medicaid kicks in to pay the nursing home bill , they were not complaining about the whole deal , they were grateful to have a roof over their heads and not burdening their kids to much
These republican voters are clueless , they KNOWINGLY benefit from obamacare already , cheer when romney says he will end it , and will vote to end it in nov , obama and the dems need to keep this exact message straight and in the voters faces till nov
" cheer when romney says he will end it" Keep saying it long enough an people will agree.
scaremongers in the Democrat party who come out of the woodwork every 2 years of the federal election cycle to scare the bejesus out of the elderl
"We have a president who won't let that happen"? People, it's going to happen whether we like it or not. The system is broke and cannot be resusitated without MAJOR changes. That's the facts that dems don't want to address. Do it now or make future generations have NOTHING. There will be NO safety net even for those who are truly needy. I do not want that for my kids. I will gadly put off benefits until I am quite a bit older if my children will have some kind of safety net. And as far as the government goes, it can not run any program successfully because it is not the people's money who run it. They don't care how it is spent. Our government admittedly has duplicate, triplicate agencies, fraud, waste, and programs that are not effective that we continue to fund with tax payer dollars and we need a president that will go line by line, agency by agency, program by program and slash and burn. Only a business man who is able to look at bottom lines, understands how to do that and knows how to turn economies around that will succeed in that endeavor. Will it be painful? YOU BET! But it will only get worse if we wait.We have no right to pass this debt on to our children. The scariest thing is to have a president who looks the other way, doesn't acknowledge that we have a serious, serious problem, that continues to conduct business as usual with his head stuck in the sand and who won't call a terrorist act what it is. Benghazi is a fiasco. Can't get to the truth or to the bottom of the situation. Lies for several weeks before admitting to the truth and still accepts no responsibility to the failure of keeping our personnel safe. We also have issues with campaign funds possibly coming in to the Obama campaign from foreigh countries. If you don't have any documentation, zip codes that are missing or only half there etc. they assume that no one can prove fraud. That's how the Obama camp works. Are foreign coutries buying our president?
Sometimes I wish I was Indiana Jones with a pistol so that I can fight off these trolls that come swinging their swords on this blog.
Jes33, yes Medicare/Medicaid is in trouble. The Affordable Healthcare Act would take care of some of the problems. But you are not going to believe that so I cannot help you.
Government is not a business. ANd Mitt Romney does not give a crap about you and your family. Have you not seen how he has changed his position on so many issues?
Have you considered where Romney and Ryan are getting their money. There is more dark money on the right than on the left. BO has raised a lot of campaign contributions, and that has to be tracked. The dark money going to the super pacs does not, so you may want to find out where that money is coming from.
I said it once and I will say it again. I do not agree with everything BO does and says.
But he is definitly a better choice than flip flopping, tell you want I think you want to hear Mitt Romney.
Medicaid is in need of major structural reform. Not only is it stretching limited financial resources at the federal and state levels, but it also falls far short in delivering quality care and services for those in need. Obamacare only makes matters worse by adding millions of people to this already strained and unreformed program.