House Democrats are seizing upon new polling that shows seniors, who gave the GOP the House in 2012, fleeing the Republicans out of concern about cuts to Medicare.
"Republicans are losing massive ground with seniors," says a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
The group just put out a memo that detailed new polling. Pew found that by a 28-point margin, Americans want to keep Social Security and Medicare benefits rather than use them to cut deficits. They also cite NBC's First Read analysis that found that 44 percent of seniors identify as Democrats, versus 35 percent as Republicans.
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When the GOP won the House in 2010, Republicans won seniors by more than 20 percentage points.
The DCCC says that while Washington has been focused on the issue of raising the debt ceiling, candidates back home have been hammering Republican opponents with success over the House budget crafted by Rep. Paul Ryan that calls for changes in Medicare. The DCCC issued a news wrap-up showing 28 different stories from states like New York, Tennessee, New Mexico, and California where GOP candidates and members got hammered over the issue during the July 4 recess.
Republicans, however, have been cheering that the national attack on them over Medicare has gone quiet as the debt-ceiling fight heats up and they feel that they are winning that debate as the issue turns on raising taxes.
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Andre Budianto 10:55PM July 19, 2011
lessthantolerant of SC 5:24AM July 19, 2011
Mark of CA 11:41PM July 17, 2011