Ross Douthat: Conservative Courting of Seniors on Health Care a Mistake

(Note - I changed the title of this post for accuracy.)

I'm late in getting to this, but on Monday, conservative (and Millennial) New York Times columnist Ross Douthat published an interesting article noting that the conservatives have made strange bedfellows in the health care debate, siding with seniors in favor of continuing government subsidized health care in the form of Medicare:

Conservatives have marshaled various briefs against the Democratic health care proposals. They’ve argued that the plans will be too expensive, that they’ll cramp innovation and raise premiums for the already-insured, that they’ll encourage employers to drop coverage and discourage them from hiring.

These arguments have been effective, up to a point. But they aren’t nearly as effective as warning senior citizens that Barack Obama wants to take away their health care.

That’s why Republicans find themselves tiptoeing into an unfamiliar role — as champions of old-age entitlements. The Democrats are “sticking it to seniors with cuts to Medicare,” Mitch McConnell declared. They want to “cannibalize” the program to pay for reform, John Cornyn complained. It’s a “raid,” Sam Brownback warned, that could result in the elderly losing “necessary care.”

Douthat notes, rightly I think, that while this maybe a politically savvy move in the short term, it not only flies in the face of bedrock conservative principles of smaller government and greater fiscal conservatism. As the population continues to age, it will make any conservative attempts to reform Medicare nearly impossible.

What Douthat misses, though, is that while older voters may be scared of "the government touching their Medicare," young people are the most supportive of reforming the health care system. Millennials are pragmatists. They don't care about ideology - they just want an efficient government that works for people. Right now, Republicans are not only disingenuously courting seniors (Mediscaring, as Douthat says), they are openly obstructing any good faith attempt at reform. Whether or not reform passes, that's not going to play well with youth. The Republican strategy for winning the short term political argument is another nail in the coffin or their long-term health as a viable national party.