Today, Politico reported new audio showing that during a campaign town hall in August, Don Bolduc “volunteered that he frequently speaks about how major reform is necessary” for Medicare and Medicaid. “‘The privatization is hugely important,’ the retired army general told the audience in the town of Pembroke on Aug. 2.”
Medicare isn’t the only earned benefit program Bolduc wants to go after either, he wants to cut trillions of dollars from Social Security as well. As Politico notes though, “Bolduc isn’t the only Republican to take aim at the popular programs in recent months; GOP Senate nominees in some of the country’s most competitive races this year have also faced scrutiny over their current or past support for privatizing the programs”. Out-of-touch GOP politicians including Blake Masters, J.D. Vance, and Ron Johnson have all campaigned on similar unpopular policies.
Politico: The third rail Republicans can’t stop touching
By Natalie Allison | September 22, 2022
Key Points:
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For two decades, campaign after campaign, Republican politicians have floated the idea of privatizing government entitlement programs including Social Security and Medicare. And campaign after campaign — from Paul Ryan to George W. Bush — it’s been a loser.
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But for some reason, they keep trying. The latest is Don Bolduc, New Hampshire’s GOP Senate nominee, who advocated privatizing Medicare during a campaign town hall in early August, according to a recording of the event obtained by POLITICO.
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Bolduc volunteered that he frequently speaks about how major reform is necessary for the government-sponsored health insurance programs for seniors and people with low incomes.
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“The privatization is hugely important,” the retired army general told the audience in the town of Pembroke on Aug. 2. “Getting government out of it, getting government money with strings attached out of it.”
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Bolduc isn’t the only Republican to take aim at the popular programs in recent months; GOP Senate nominees in some of the country’s most competitive races this year have also faced scrutiny over their current or past support for privatizing the programs, in some cases forcing them to recant.
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Bolduc’s remarks about privatizing Medicare will all but certainly be used against him in advertisements by Democrats, who have long used the threat of changes to Social Security and Medicare to animate older voters. Bolduc’s opponent, incumbent Sen. Maggie Hassan, has said she would fight to protect existing Social Security and Medicare programs.
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Elderly voters — many on fixed incomes and relying on government benefits — are a key voting bloc. New Hampshire’s 307,000 Medicare recipients made up roughly one-quarter of the state’s population in 2020, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, while Social Security recipients totaled 321,000 in the state as of last year.
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“He has problems. This doesn’t solve any of them, and perhaps compounds them a little bit,” said Tom Rath, the state’s former attorney general and a former Republican National Committeeman for New Hampshire. “This is a state with a lot of folks over 60 — you’re talking to one — and that matters.”
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Rath, who has served as campaign adviser to multiple GOP New Hampshire senators and Republican presidential candidates, said it would be “political malpractice” if Democrats didn’t attack Bolduc on the Medicare issue. He criticized Bolduc for believing he could dramatically change positions from the primary to general election without voters noticing.
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Mike Dennehy, a Republican strategist in New Hampshire who worked on Kevin Smith’s Senate primary campaign this year, questioned why Bolduc has even discussed Medicare privatization when no such proposal is actually looming in the Senate.
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“The reality is when any candidate takes a position and then changes it within a short timeframe, it is very difficult to defend,” Dennehy said.
Read the full report here.
Published: Sep 22, 2022