In U.S. national politics, Republicans flourish when the focus is on tax cuts; they suffer when Medicare is the focus. It looks like it’ll be different this year.
Mitt Romney has proposed huge tax cuts that principally benefit the wealthy, while refusing to say how he’d pay for them by closing unspecified loopholes. This lacks credibility and may become one of the rare tax-cut promises that is a political loser.
On Medicare, Romney and his running mate, Representative Paul Ryan, have put forth a plan that ultimately would turn the federal health-insurance program for the elderly into a premium support, or voucher, program. Democrats are winning on the issue in Florida and elsewhere. [cont.]
Al Hunt, Bloomberg