Ryan Lizza lampoons pollster Frank Luntz in the New Republic
for his latest 160-page memo on Social Security reform. I have not seen
the memo, so I’m not sure how valid Lizza’s critique is. In Lizza’s
chronicles of the very public Luntz memos from the 1990s, however, one
line stuck out:
In 1995, a Luntz memo surfaced on how to talk about Medicare
(“[I]f we can’t prove that Medicare is going bankrupt, we’ll never be
able to sell our solutions”) …
At the time, the Gingrich-led House Republicans were pushing
Medicare reform against Democratic opposition and the threat of a
presidential veto. Opponents warned that the reforms would end Medicare
and finance tax cuts. They agreed there was a problem, but thought that
the bill went too far (“you won’t be able to keep your doctor, they’re
going to cut people off, it’s to pay for a tax cut for the rich, etc.”)
and not far enough (“You can’t fix a $900 billion problem with $270
billion”). At least there was a $90 billion alternative then.A decade later, the president wants to reform Social Security
and one of the arguments against it is that Medicare is in much worse
shape and in more urgent need of reform, but there are no proposals to
address it.
