In a heavily Republican district, that was until recently considered a gimme for any Republican, the special election that was held today, was won by a Democrat.
The significance of this election is that it had become a referendum on the Republican's plan to privatize Medicare. Republican Paul Ryan campaigned for Jane Corwin, but the Democrat, Katherine Hochul, has been declared the winner with 48% of the vote.
The Medicare issue has until now been considered a litmus test for Republicans. If anyone like Newt Gingrich pointed out that it didn't make much sense, they were crucified, called a RINO, and forced to recant their comments.
Medicare has been called the third rail of politics for good reason. When Obama trimmed $5 billion of waste from Medicare extending the programs solvency by 7 years, he was attacked by the Republicans, and Tea Party elders hit the streets with signs saying "Keep Government Out Of My Medicare".
Everyone loves Medicare, and for good reason. Medicare is non profit and only spends 3% on administration. So when the Republicans propose privatizing Medicare, and replacing it with insurance companies that have 30% profit and 30% administration costs they are asking seniors to pay on average $6500 more on a program that costs more than twice as much as Medicare.
All but 4 members of the House have voted to kill Medicare, and soon Senate Republicans are also going to have to vote on whether they want to kill Medicare.
After this election debacle, many Republicans will be backpeddling their support for killing Medicare. Massachusetts Rep. Scott Brown has already reversed his opinion in just one week. Soon few of the Republicans will be willing to be on the record as wanting to Kill Medicare.
http://www.thenation.com/blog/160913/no-...