Democrats Make A Play To Win Over Seniors, Long A Base For GOP

[Greenbeard]

The Dems are going after the gray vote pretty hard. And why not? One of their biggest achievements this session has been to lower seniors’ prescription drug costs. Meanwhile, the GOP is running a bunch of candidates who’ve flirted with everything from Social Security privatization to ending entitlements altogether. And of course the Senator heading up the GOP’s drive to take back that chamber is best known for defrauding Medicare.

Democrats Make A Play To Win Over Seniors, Long A Base For GOP​

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Democrats in key races around the country are making an aggressive push for older voters, a key bloc in lower-turnout midterm elections, citing both their own work to lower prescription drug costs and hammering the GOP for suggesting changes to Social Security.

Here in retiree-rich Arizona, Sen. Mark Kelly is campaigning relentlessly on the provisions aimed at lowering prescription drugs in the Inflation Reduction Act while Democratic groups pound his opponent, venture capitalist Blake Masters, with attack ads noting the Republican’s support for the privatization of Social Security — something Masters is now backing away from.

Kelly is far from alone in his focus on seniors. It’s also been a major issue for Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) as he fights to hold on to his Donald Trump-won rural district. Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) held a similar roundtable event with the AARP on prescription drug prices early on in the congressional recess. Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, the Democratic nominee in Wisconsin, has relentlessly hammered GOP Sen. Ron Johnson for suggesting cuts to Social Security.

 

[bongsaway]

I'm starting to think maybe the dems will control all three branches of government after the midterm. If so we can all thank one person, the leader of the republican party, the gift that keeps giving. If only he could control his mouth.

 

[Grandpappy]

Sorry. When the woke insanity and152 genders are gone and common sense returns, I'll consider voting Dem. I'm not holding my breath.

 

[KingLeo]

The numerous Republicans attacks on SS and Medicare is making it easy for Democrats.
If Republicans ever gain control of the House, the Senate, and the White House again rest assured that the end of SS and Medicare will soon follow.

 

[Grandpappy]

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/aug/3/democrats-gut-medicare-to-pay-for-obamacare/

Didn't the Democrats raid Medicare funds to pay for Obamacare? Ya. Us seniors will LUUUUUUV them for that!

 

[Blue Dog]

The GOP has been threatening SS and Medicare for a long time, yet that demographic seems to keep voting for them.

Things that make you go hmmmm…..

 

[Cardinal]

The GOP has been threatening SS and Medicare for a long time, yet that demographic seems to keep voting for them.

Things that make you go hmmmm…..

Thus the marrying of the Republican Party with the Christian Right and the NRA in the late seventies. By tying cultural issues to a party that's initially defined by it's economic and tax policies, you can get people to vote against their own interests.

 

[lwf]

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/aug/3/democrats-gut-medicare-to-pay-for-obamacare/

Didn't the Democrats raid Medicare funds to pay for Obamacare? Ya. Us seniors will LUUUUUUV them for that!

No.

https://www.politifact.com/factchec...-senate-bill-wont-strip-300-billion-medicare/

It is the Republican Party that wants to do away with Medicare. Medicare is a social program paid for by the tax dollars of the working class. The party of "lower taxes" is the party that hates Medicare. It is the height of cognitive dissonance when seniors vote Republican and then go home and cash their Medicare checks. Seniors who vote Republican are voting against their own interests and well being, all because they are too easily frightened into believing that having more than two genders is the beginning of the end of society.

Seniors are the victims of the Republican Party, and those seniors that unwisely limit their news consumption to conservative sources are frightened into believing nonsense about Democrats so that they vote against their own interests.

 

[Helix]

The Republicans won't ruin our social programs for seniors, as they vote. They are exceptionally likely to ruin them for everyone else, however.

 

[VanceMack]

When HASNT the rat party and the idiot left tried to scare seniors into voting for them?

the rat party has used the same playbook along with their media minions for 6 decades. Stir up racial hatred. Invoke class warfare. Accuse of misogyny. Scare seniors. Offer free shit to college students. Blame the republicans for the failures of the minority communities in the inner cities.

The only thing sadder than the rat party using their Alinsky/commie/Marxist tactics is the tragic reality that so many ****ing morons in this country fall for it.

 

[Blue Dog]

Thus the marrying of the Republican Party with the Christian Right and the NRA in the late seventies. By tying cultural issues to a party that's initially defined by it's economic and tax policies, you can get people to vote against their own interests.

Indeed.

I would just add there is the possibility these seniors only believe the threats to be empty campaign rhetoric that has no follow thru.

 

[Cardinal]

Indeed.

I would just add there is the possibility these seniors only believe the threats to be empty campaign rhetoric that has no follow thru.

Hell of a gamble, hoping that the candidate you're voting for won't do what he says he'll do.

 

[Greenbeard]

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/aug/3/democrats-gut-medicare-to-pay-for-obamacare/

Didn't the Democrats raid Medicare funds to pay for Obamacare? Ya. Us seniors will LUUUUUUV them for that!

The Dems saved the country a couple trillion in health care costs over the last 12 years thanks to Obamacare, including for Medicare. Drastically improving the financial picture for the public insurance programs, even while adding benefits to Medicare. Now they’re going even further, lowering seniors’ drug costs. Seniors should indeed love all of that!

 

[Greenbeard]

Hell of a gamble, hoping that the candidate you're voting for won't do what he says he'll do.

This seems pretty common for GOP voters. I did a few poll threads over the past few years gauging whether folks thought Roe would be overturned (what with Trump explicitly saying he would pick judges who would overturn Roe) and I was shocked by how many people didn’t see it coming, despite the GOP being totally open about what they were doing.

 

[TheParser]

The Dems could get a lot of us old folks if the federal government paid 100% for caregivers at home or for nursing home fees.

Maybe President Harris in 2025 will sign such laws after the Dem-controlled Congress passes them.

Cradle to grave coverage? H*ll, yes!

 

[Grandpappy]

The Dems could get a lot of us old folks if the federal government paid 100% for caregivers at home or for nursing home fees.

Maybe President Harris in 2025 will sign such laws after the Dem-controlled Congress passes them.

Cradle to grave coverage? H*ll, yes!

It's all free! FREE!!!! YAY!

 

[independentusa]

The Dems are going after the gray vote pretty hard. And why not? One of their biggest achievements this session has been to lower seniors’ prescription drug costs. Meanwhile, the GOP is running a bunch of candidates who’ve flirted with everything from Social Security privatization to ending entitlements altogether. And of course the Senator heading up the GOP’s drive to take back that chamber is best known for defrauding Medicare.

Democrats Make A Play To Win Over Seniors, Long A Base For GOP​

​

I find it interesting that seniors vote for GOPers. It amazes me how people will vote against their own needs. The GOP has long wanted to end Medicare and Social Security and if they get back in power, they will make another try. They will call it privatizing those program, but it will end up being the end of them. And those two programs are a mainstay of the elderly, even those well off. So why vote for a party that would end them. When I ask older friends they say, that it is just political talk and the GOP will never do it. I remember GOP voters in Kentucky being interviewed saying the same thing about the ACA, that the GOP would never try and end that program that covered so many in Kentucky. In the end the GOP came within one vote of doing so and now if they get control, none of the GOP legislators have the guts to stop it this time. So why do they vote against their needs, because they are Republicans and most Republicans vote Republican no matter what.

 

[TheParser]

It's all free! FREE!!!! YAY!

I understand where you are coming from.

But times are a-changing.

I remember reading that when communism fell in Europe, some (a lot?) of people in former communist countries were thrown for a loop. They were used to being taken care of (even if their apartments were tiny), and they yearned for the good old days of cradle to grave coverage. (Even if it did mean waiting in long lines -- for nothing. Or paying bribes for medical care.)