Senior Citizens And The Romney-Ryan Threat To Social Security, Medicare, And Medicaid

For a long time, it has been believed that senior citizens have been more likely to vote Republican than any other age group in the 2012 Presidential campaign!

Senior citizens as a group are seen as less likely to support abortion, gay rights and gay marriage, and sadly, some have a problem with having an African American President as well. Also, religious beliefs are often more important to many senior citizens, so that makes a majority of them likely to be conservative and vote Republican.

But forgotten is that these senior citizens have greatly benefited from “liberal” Democratic programs such as Social Security under Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, and Medicare and Medicaid under Lyndon B. Johnson and the Great Society,, and with their longevity, they are really gaining a lot more than probably future generations will benefit from these prograrms.

And many senior citizens sense that what Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan represent is a threat to them, even though there are claims that it will not affect anyone on these programs, or within ten years of going on these programs.

But then, many of these senior citizens also are concerned that their children under 55 will be forced onto a voucher program under the Paul Ryan plan on Medicare, and that Medicaid will be cut, and that Social Security could be privatized as well for the future, endangering what they and their children have contributed to for generations.

So now, the belief is developing that it is possible that senior citizens may be reconsidering their support of Republicans Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, as, after all, they are a combination of an extremely wealthy former Governor, who has never had to struggle, and a young Congressman who has inherited millions from his in laws, and has done very well on his own for a man of 42 years of age!

In other words, are these candidates able to understand the hopes and fears of average people, both senior citizens and their children who are under 55, but have paid into Medicare and Social Security for decades?

The answer is clearly NO!