Medicare as a political weapon

NPR details Medicare's political muscle. Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports on a Florida representative who is unabashed in his defense of his support for the GOP plan to privatize Medicare.  

NPR: Democrats Revive Medicare As Political Weapon
Just how powerful is Medicare as a political weapon? So powerful that for the past two election cycles it's been a favorite cudgel for both Republicans and Democrats. And the election of Democrat Kathy Hochul to fill a traditionally GOP seat in upstate New York in May is just the latest demonstration (Rovner, 6/14).

Bloomberg: Iraq Veteran West Won't Flinch At Selling Medicare Cuts To Florida Seniors
If some U.S. House Republicans are having qualms about the political fallout over their plan to privatize Medicare, Allen West isn't one of them. Less than two weeks after voter opposition to the Medicare proposal helped elect a Democrat to an open House seat in New York, West offered constituents in his south Florida district an unambiguous defense of the plan that Republicans say is needed to save the federal insurance program for the elderly. "We have got to do something about this program or else," he told voters of the 22nd Congressional District at a June 6 town-hall meeting at Old Davie School Historical Museum, a 1918 national landmark that sits amid Florida's commercial and residential sprawl (Rowley, 6/14).