DCCC Chair Steve Israel Relays Fears Over Candidate Recruitment If Dems Buckle On Medicare 8JUL11

REP Steve Israel D NY should be concerned about recruiting candidates and not loosing any more seats in the House. I will not support the Democratic Party with my time and money (as I have in the past) if they do not hold the line on Medicare and Social Security during the budget talks with the gop / tea-baggers. This attitude is widespread throughout the Progressive community, and unlike the president, we are not afraid to call the party's bluff. From HuffPost....
WASHINGTON -- Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Steve Israel warned lawmakers on Friday that he would have trouble recruiting candidates for office if the party caved on Medicare during the debt ceiling negotiations.
The comments came during a closed-door caucus meeting. Multiple sources confirmed the remarks, describing them as "impassioned."
"He said recruits would not consider running if Democrats did not stand up for Medicare," one attendee told The Huffington Post. "He added that national polling showed a seismic shift against House Republicans after the [Paul] Ryan budget because of Medicare."
Israel's warning adds yet another political element to a debt-ceiling debate that is entering its 11th hour. House Democrats were surprised to wake up Thursday morning to reports that the White House was putting both Medicare and Social Security on the negotiating table. Previously, Democrats had pushed to have entitlement reforms be considered on a separate track, if considered at all.
During the caucus meeting, the attendee emailed, "there was great frustration that the Obama administration was discussing cutting Medicare and Social Security (there was a little less emphasis on Medicaid). The general sense was that protecting Medicare and Social Security was a defining Democratic value, and that agreeing to cuts would be a gift to Republicans if not political suicide."
Israel, who as DCCC chair is charged with getting members elected, brought up the electoral implications. Democratic lawmakers have tried to draw a distinction between cuts to Medicare benefits and those that could be applied to health care suppliers. But officials -- including, presumably, Israel -- have worried that any changes to Medicare would dull the criticisms Democrats have levied against Republicans for attempting to turn Medicare into a voucher program.
 

GOP Freshmen On Medicare Attacks: Let's Let Bygones Be Bygones 12MAI11

So the tea-baggers and gop right wing fanatics don't want the Democrats to use their vote to destroy Medicare against them!?!?!??!? BAWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! FOOLS! They should have thought of that before the vote! From Talking Points Memo.....and be sure to read their pathetic, whinny letter to Pres Obama, click the link below....

House Republican freshmen admit that their so-called "MediScare" attacks on Democrats helped them win a big majority in 2010. Democrats had voted for the health care law, which included $500 billion in "cuts" to Medicare -- primarily slashing overpayments to private insurers -- and Republican challengers never let them forget it.
Now, they say, it's time to let bygones be bygones.
Nearly a dozen House Republican freshmen held a press conference outside the Capitol Tuesday morning to "wipe the slate clean," and "hit the reset button."
"Yeah, I mean there's been -- again, this is a both-sides issue," said Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) when asked if GOP candidates and the NRCC had engaged in 'MediScare' tactics last year. "To say that one side is blameless in trying to use issues to win votes is just dishonest."
On Tuesday, Kinzinger and 41 of his colleagues sent a letter to President Obama, asking him to rein in Democratic attacks on GOP members who voted for the House budget, which includes a plan to privatize Medicare and cap spending on the program.
"We ask that you stand above partisanship, condemn the disingenuous attacks and work with this Congress to reform spending on entitlement programs," the letter reads.
To preempt the press conference, the DCCC responded to the letter with a long list of NRCC and candidate attack ads and statements from the 2010 election -- all of them targeting Democrats for cutting Medicare, all on behalf of GOP candidates who are now hoping for a truce on Medicare attacks.
"Let's get past the past. Let's move forward to the future, and say, 'ok, today is today, and we have a real problem,'" Kinzinger said.
It's a pretty clear indication they're feeling the heat from Dem attacks -- and realize that, after 2010, they're in a pretty weak position to ask for a truce. Read the letter here.