As I have previously mentioned here on this blog, Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) and Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-MT) are fighting over a claim to the middle ground when it comes to the Paul Ryan deficit reduction plan. Tester called the plan a “good start” on MSNBC, while Rehberg voted against the plan over his concerns about the impact to seniors in Montana.
Nonetheless, Kellyn Brown with The Flathead Beacon notes how a Democratic polling firm is surveying the issue in several battleground states, including Montana.
The Democratic firm Public Policy Polling has released results of a poll it conducted in four so-called battleground states (including Montana) that found voters overwhelmingly oppose cutting Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid to in order to reduce the national debt.
Along with Montana, PPP polled Ohio, Missouri and Minnesota. All four states have a Democratic senator up for reelection in 2012. The survey found 76 percent of Montanans opposed cutting Social Security, 71 percent opposed cutting Medicare and 59 percent opposed cutting Medicaid to help reduce the U.S. deficit.
Hey Hospitals: Dems Medicare Plan Bankrupts 25% of Hospitals by 2030
The Washington Examiner has this:
Democrats are claiming that Ryan’s plan will force seniors to pay $6,400 a year more for health care than current law. But as the CMS reported Friday, the only way Medicare manages to achieve those savings is by paying doctor’s less. A lot less. In 2009, Medicare paid doctors about 80% if what private health insurance paid. Under the Democrats plan that number would decline to 57% by 2012. By 2085, Medicare would only be paying 27% of what private insurance pays.
Politico Playbook has more:
BEHIND THE CURTAIN – “GOP ignored Ryan plan red flags,” by Glenn Thrush and Jake Sherman: “It might be a political time bomb – that’s what GOP pollsters warned as House Republicans prepared for the April 15 vote on Rep. Paul Ryan’s proposed budget, with its plan to dramatically remake Medicare. No matter how favorably pollsters with the Tarrance Group or other firms spun the bill in their pitch – casting it as the only path to saving the beloved health entitlement for seniors – the Ryan budget’s approval rating barely budged above the high 30s or its disapproval below 50 percent, according to a Republican operative familiar with the presentation. The poll numbers on the plan were so toxic – nearly as bad as those of President Barack Obama’s health reform bill at the nadir of its unpopularity – that staffers with the National Republican Congressional Committee warned leadership, ‘You might not want to go there’ in a series of tense pre-vote meetings. … [I]t passed … quickly – with a minimum of public hand-wringing and a frenzy of backroom machinations …
HuffPost previewed the poll numbers Tuesday, with this:
A coalition of progressive groups is warning swing state Democrats to think twice before embracing parts of the Republican budget plan that would privatize Medicare and cut Medicaid.
Armed with a stark set of polls they plan to release this week, the groups — Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Democracy for America, MoveOn.org and Credo Action — are telling Democratic Sens. Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Jon Tester (Mont.), and Amy Klobuchar (Minn.) to stand tall on the popular social safety net programs.