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Bay News 9: Romney tops Obama by 6 points along I-4 Corridor

From: Bay News 9

Both President Barack Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney have targeted Central Florida and the Tampa Bay area as being the key to victory in Florida.

Now, a Tampa Bay Times, Bay News 9 Exclusive I-4 Corridor Poll show more than half of voters along the crucial region favor sending Romney to the White House.


The latest results, released Saturday, show the former Massachusetts governor with a 6-point lead over Obama on the I-4 Corridor.


When asked which ticket they would vote for if the general election were held today, 51 percent chose Romney, and 45 percent picked President Obama. The remaining 4 percent said they were still undecided.

The telephone survey was conducted Oct. 22-24 among 625 registered Florida voters in the I-4 Corridor.

The margin of error is plus-or-minus 4 percent.

Saturday's results are almost identical to a previous Florida Decides Statewide Poll from Oct. 11, which was conducted following the first presidential debate between Obama and Romney.

The only difference two weeks ago: One percent of voters chose a third-party ticket. No one in Saturday's poll chose a third-party candidate, though the question did include options for Libertarian Gary Johnson or "one of the other party tickets."

"Winning by five points in Florida is a landslide," said Brad Coker, of Mason-Dixon, the Jacksonville-based company that conducted the poll. The normal margin is just 2 to 3 percent, which is what makes Florida such a crucial swing state, with its 29 electoral votes -- tied for the third most in the country -- up for grabs.

Breaking down the numbers

In Central Florida, Romney led the vote 52-44 percent over Obama. Four percent said they were undecided. That was up from 2 percent who said the same two weeks earlier.


Romney's lead was slightly smaller in the Tampa Bay area, where he topped Obama 50-46 percent. Again, 4 percent were undecided, up from 3 percent of Tampa Bay voters in the earlier October poll.

Coker added these poll results are fitting a larger pattern. The same trend is popping up in polls across the country.

But it doesn't take much to flip the state. In 2008, Obama won by 3 percent, and he had just a 1 percent edge along the I-4 Corridor.

"This is the I-4 Corridor, the Florida battleground," Coker said. "This is the part of the state that usually shows what's going to happen. Obama is going to underperform in a lot of counties he performed well in before."

Obama did hold the favor of women. Fifty percent said they would re-elect the president, with 46 percent choosing Romney. Men, however, favored Romney, 56-40 percent. Four percent of both men and women were undecided.

The I-4 Corridor's youngest voters, in the 18-34 age bracket, also favored the president by 51 percent, with 42 percent siding with Romney. Seven percent of young voters were undecided, the largest amount of any age group.

Romney held a majority in every other age bracket -- ages 35-49, 50-64, and 65 and older.

Breaking down the results by race, the Hispanic vote remains the most split, though Obama had the majority, 56-37 percent, of the Hispanic vote along the I-4 Corridor. Romney actually held a 2-point lead among Hispanics in this month's previous statewide poll.

Among black voters in Central Florida and Tampa Bay, 97 percent backed Obama. White voters in the same region favored Romney, 60-36 percent.

Seven percent of Hispanics said they were still undecided in Saturday's poll. Only 3 percent of white voters and 1 percent of black voters said the same.

The largest group of undecided voters on the I-4 Corridor is among independents. Ten percent said they have not yet made up their mind, with only two weeks left until Election Day.

Romney held an 8-point lead among independent voters, 49-41 percent over Obama.

The Republican nominee also got 11 percent of Democrats' voters in the I-4 Corridor Poll. Only 5 percent of Republicans said they would vote for Obama.

Little change in Obama's approval rating

More than half of voters along the I-4 Corridor said they disapprove of the job Barack Obama has done as president.

Of those polled, 54 percent said they disapproved of the president's job performance, as opposed to 44 percent who approved, and 2 percent who said they were not sure.

Those numbers are exactly the same as the Oct. 11 statewide poll, though the breakdown saw some significant changes.

Two weeks ago, 2 percent of voters in both Central Florida and Tampa Bay said they were not sure.

Now, 5 percent of Central Floridians aren't sure, with most of those who said the same before now disapproving.


In Tampa Bay, however, Obama's approval rating went up from 44 to 47 percent. The number of Bay area voters who disapproved also went down, from 54 to 47 percent. The "not sure" vote went up from 2 to 6 percent.


The biggest change of opinion was seen among independents. In that group, Obama's approval rating went up from 39 to 46 percent, and those who disapproved dropped 10 points, from 59 to 49 percent.

Most I-4 Corridor voters, 54 percent, also said they thought America was on the wrong track. Only 41 percent said the country was on the right track.

Again, that number was the same as the earlier statewide poll, but slightly more voters in both Central Florida and Tampa Bay said things were on the right track than two weeks ago.

Most voters in the latest poll also agreed they were not better off today than they were four years ago, when President Obama took office.

While most of Saturday's poll results were close or identical to the earlier, statewide poll, this question saw a 5 percent difference, greater than the 4 percent margin of error.

Of those polled in the latest survey, 55 percent said they were not better off, and 39 percent said they were. Six percent said they were not sure.

More than half of voters in Central Florida and Tampa Bay said they trusted Mitt Romney over President Obama to improve the economy and look out for the middle class. Half also said they trusted Romney's foreign policy more.

I-4 Corridor agrees: Political ads annoying

A new question in the latest Florida Decides poll asked voters their opinion of the amount of attention Central Florida and Tampa Bay has been getting during the election season's home stretch.

And most agreed: They've had enough.

Seventy percent of voters along the I-4 Corridor said all of the attention the area has gotten was annoying. They said there were too many political ads on TV and campaign activity around the region, and they did not really need that much information to make a decision about who would get their vote in November.

On the other hand, 26 percent said the attention both candidates have given to the I-4 Corridor was a good thing, because it brings in money, attracts national coverage and made them feel like their vote was important.

The remaining four percent either said their answer was a combination of both, or they didn't know.

More men, 77 percent, were annoyed at political coverage than women, 64 percent. Republicans, 72 percent, were also more annoyed than Democrats, 69 percent.

But perhaps the most important number was among the independents, 71 percent of whom said they were annoyed. That could be why there has been little change in that group's opinion since the last poll just two weeks ago.

An accurate Election Day preview?

So, with Romney up 6 points on the I-4 Corridor, is that a preview of what will happen on Nov. 6?
Mason-Dixon's Brad Coker thinks so, and that can already be seen in the way both candidates are campaigning, especially Mitt Romney.

"Things are breaking his way right now," Coker said of the GOP nominee. "You can tell by the way they are campaigning right now. Romney is positive, taking the high road. Obama is throwing everything at the campaign, including the sink."

Coker said the latest poll is more important than the statewide poll two weeks ago, which indicated a major shift in numbers favoring Romney. He said this poll shows that shift was not a fluke, but the beginning of a trend.

"I think it is locking in," he said. "I do not see Romney receding. I have yet to see a state poll in the past week were Obama has gone up and Romney has gone down. It has been the opposite."


But at the end of the day, the only poll that truly matters is the one on Nov. 6, the day Florida decides.

Poll numbers in detail

QUESTION: Do you recognize the name ________?
(If yes) Do you have a favorable, unfavorable or neutral opinion of ________?
* (Numbers in parentheses from Oct. 11, 2012 statewide poll)

	RECOGNIZE FAVORABLE	RECOGNIZE UNFAVORABLE	RECOGNIZE NEUTRAL	DON'T RECOGNIZE
Mitt Romney	52%    (50%)	39%    (38%)	9%    (12%)	—    (—)
Barack Obama	44%    (45%)	47%    (49%)	9%    (6%)	—    (—)

QUESTION: If the 2012 general election for president and vice president were held today, which one of the following tickets would get your vote?

• The Democratic ticket of Barack Obama & Joe Biden
• The Republican ticket of Mitt Romney & Paul Ryan
• The Libertarian ticket of Gary Johnson & James Gray
• One of the other party tickets

* (Numbers in parentheses from Oct. 11, 2012 statewide poll)

	OBAMA	ROMNEY	UNDECIDED
I-4 CORRIDOR	45%     (44%*)	51%     (51%*)	4%     (4%*)
REGION	OBAMA	ROMNEY	UNDECIDED
Central Florida	44%     (46%)	52%     (52%)	4%     (2%)
Tampa Bay	46%     (44%)	50%     (52%)	4%     (3%)
SEX	OBAMA	ROMNEY	UNDECIDED
Men	40%     (39%)	56%     (56%)	4%     (4%)
Women	50%     (49%)	46%     (47%)	4%     (4%)
AGE	OBAMA	ROMNEY	UNDECIDED
18–34	51%     (53%)	42%     (40%)	7%     (7%)
35–49	42%     (43%)	53%     (52%)	5%     (5%)
50–64	46%     (39%)	51%     (54%)	3%     (6%)
65+	44%     (45%)	53%     (52%)	3%     (2%)
RACE	OBAMA	ROMNEY	UNDECIDED
White	36%     (34%)	60%     (61%)	4%     (4%)
Black	97%     (94%)	2%       (5%)	1%     (1%)
Hispanic	56%     (44%)	37%     (46%)	7%     (10%)
PARTY	OBAMA	ROMNEY	UNDECIDED
Democrat	87%     (82%)	11%     (14%)	2%     (4%)
Republican	5%       (4%)	93%     (94%)	2%     (2%)
Independent	41%     (39%)	49%     (52%)	10%   (6%)

QUESTION: Do you approve or disapprove of Barack Obama's job performance as president?
* (Numbers in parentheses from Oct. 11, 2012 statewide poll)

	APPROVE	DISAPPROVE	NOT SURE
I-4 CORRIDOR	44%    (44%*)	54%    (54%*)	2%    (2%*)
REGION	APPROVE	DISAPPROVE	NOT SURE
Central Florida	41%     (40%)	54%     (58%)	5%     (2%)
Tampa Bay	47%     (44%)	47%     (54%)	6%     (2%)
SEX	APPROVE	DISAPPROVE	NOT SURE
Men	37%     (38%)	57%     (60%)	6%     (2%)
Women	50%     (49%)	46%     (49%)	4%     (2%)
RACE	APPROVE	DISAPPROVE	NOT SURE
White	35%     (34%)	60%     (65%)	5%     (2%)
Black	92%     (91%)	5%       (6%)	3%     (3%)
Hispanic	57%     (53%)	35%     (44%)	8%     (3%)
PARTY	APPROVE	DISAPPROVE	NOT SURE
Democrat	79%     (82%)	15%     (16%)	6%     (2%)
Republican	7%       (5%)	90%     (93%)	3%     (2%)
Independent	46%     (39%)	49%     (59%)	5%     (2%)

QUESTION: Would you say that things in the country are on the right track or would you say they are on the wrong track?
* (Numbers in parentheses from Oct. 11, 2012 statewide poll)

	RIGHT	WRONG	NOT SURE
I-4 CORRIDOR	41%    (41%*)	54%    (54%*)	5%    (5%*)
REGION	RIGHT	WRONG	NOT SURE
Central Florida	38%     (36%)	57%     (59%)	5%     (5%)
Tampa Bay	45%     (41%)	50%     (56%)	5%     (3%)
SEX	RIGHT	WRONG	NOT SURE
Men	35%     (38%)	60%     (58%)	5%     (4%)
Women	46%     (43%)	49%     (51%)	5%     (6%)
RACE	RIGHT	WRONG	NOT SURE
White	34%     (34%)	62%     (63%)	4%     (3%)
Black	88%     (78%)	5%       (12%)	7%     (10%)
Hispanic	45%     (42%)	48%     (49%)	7%     (9%)
PARTY	RIGHT	WRONG	NOT SURE
Democrat	72%     (74%)	21%     (20%)	7%     (6%)
Republican	9%       (6%)	89%     (91%)	2%     (3%)
Independent	42%     (35%)	46%     (58%)	9%     (7%)

QUESTION: Are you better off today than you were four years ago?
* (Numbers in parentheses from Oct. 11, 2012 statewide poll)

	YES	NO	NOT SURE
I-4 CORRIDOR	39%     (44%*)	55%     (50%*)	6%     (6%*)
REGION	YES	NO	NOT SURE
Central Florida	36%     (35%	58%     (58%)	6%     (7%)
Tampa Bay	43%     (42%)	52%     (51%)	5%     (7%)
SEX	YES	NO	NOT SURE
Men	35%     (41%)	60%     (55%)	5%     (4%)
Women	42%     (46%)	51%     (46%)	7%     (8%)
RACE	YES	NO	NOT SURE
White	32%     (39%)	61%     (55%)	7%     (6%)
Black	86%     (73%)	11%     (22%)	3%     (5%)
Hispanic	44%     (37%)	51%     (53%)	5%     (10%)
PARTY	YES	NO	NOT SURE
Democrat	66%     (73%)	27%     (20%)	7%     (7%)
Republican	9%       (13%)	87%     (83%)	4%     (4%)
Independent	41%     (43%)	51%     (51%)	8%     (6%)

QUESTION: Who do you trust more to improve the economy – Barack Obama or Mitt Romney?
* (Numbers in parentheses from Oct. 11, 2012 statewide poll)

	OBAMA	ROMNEY	NOT SURE
I-4 CORRIDOR	44%     (44%*)	52%     (50%*)	4%     (6%*)
REGION	OBAMA	ROMNEY	NOT SURE
Central Florida	42%     (39%)	54%     (54%)	4%     (7%)
Tampa Bay	47%     (41%)	50%     (52%)	3%     (7%)
SEX	OBAMA	ROMNEY	NOT SURE
Men	39%     (41%)	57%     (55%)	4%     (4%)
Women	48%     (46%)	48%     (47%)	4%     (7%)
RACE	OBAMA	ROMNEY	NOT SURE
White	37%     (37%)	59%     (58%)	4%     (5%)
Black	94%     (84%)	3%       (11%)	3%     (5%)
Hispanic	43%     (39%)	50%     (48%)	7%     (13%)
PARTY	OBAMA	ROMNEY	NOT SURE
Democrat	82%     (83%)	11%     (13%)	7%     (4%)
Republican	5%       (4%)	94%     (92%)	1%     (4%)
Independent	43%     (39%)	54%     (54%)	3%     (7%)

QUESTION: Who do you trust more on foreign policy – Barack Obama or Mitt Romney?
* (Numbers in parentheses from Oct. 11, 2012 statewide poll)

	OBAMA	ROMNEY	NOT SURE
I-4 CORRIDOR	48%     (46%*)	50%     (49%*)	2%     (5%*)
REGION	OBAMA	ROMNEY	NOT SURE
Central Florida	48%     (46%)	50%     (51%)	2%     (3%)
Tampa Bay	47%     (46%)	50%     (48%)	3%     (6%)
SEX	OBAMA	ROMNEY	NOT SURE
Men	41%     (39%)	57%     (58%)	2%     (3%)
Women	54%     (52%)	44%     (42%)	2%     (6%)
RACE	OBAMA	ROMNEY	NOT SURE
White	41%     (38%)	58%     (57%)	1%     (5%)
Black	95%     (91%)	1%       (6%)	4%     (3%)
Hispanic	53%     (45%)	45%     (49%)	2%     (6%)
PARTY	OBAMA	ROMNEY	NOT SURE
Democrat	88%     (82%)	10%     (13%)	2%     (5%)
Republican	7%       (7%)	91%     (91%)	2%     (2%)
Independent	49%     (47%)	49%     (49%)	2%     (4%)

QUESTION: Who do you trust more to look out for the middle class – Barack Obama or Mitt Romney?
* (Numbers in parentheses from Oct. 11, 2012 statewide poll)

	OBAMA	ROMNEY	NOT SURE
I-4 CORRIDOR	46%     (47%*)	52%     (50%*)	2%     (3%*)
REGION	OBAMA	ROMNEY	NOT SURE
Central Florida	45%     (46%)	53%     (51%)	2%     (3%)
Tampa Bay	47%     (46%)	51%     (48%)	2%     (6%)
SEX	OBAMA	ROMNEY	NOT SURE
Men	40%     (44%)	59%     (55%)	1%     (1%)
Women	51%     (50%)	46%     (46%)	3%     (4%)
RACE	OBAMA	ROMNEY	NOT SURE
White	38%     (38%)	60%     (60%)	2%     (2%)
Black	97%     (94%)	1%       (2%)	2%     (4%)
Hispanic	54%     (45%)	43%     (46%)	3%     (9%)
PARTY	OBAMA	ROMNEY	NOT SURE
Democrat	89%     (84%)	10%     (11%)	1%     (5%)
Republican	3%       (7%)	94%     (92%)	3%     (1%)
Independent	43%     (44%)	53%     (51%)	2%     (5%)

QUESTION: Both presidential candidates have targeted Central Florida and the Tampa Bay area as being the key to victory in Florida. Their campaigns have spent a considerable amount of time visiting here and millions of dollars on television advertising. Which one of the following best describes your view?

• All of the attention is a good thing because it brings in money, attracts national coverage to the region and makes me feel that my vote is important.
• All of the attention is annoying. There are too many political commercials on television and other political activity. I don't need that much information to make a decision about who I am going to vote for.
  
  

	GOOD THING	ANNOYING	BOTH/DON'T KNOW
I-4 CORRIDOR	26%	70%	4%
REGION	GOOD THING	ANNOYING	BOTH/DON'T KNOW
Central Florida	26%	70%	4%
Tampa Bay	26%	70%	4%
SEX	GOOD THING	ANNOYING	BOTH/DON'T KNOW
Men	21%	77%	2%
Women	31%	64%	5%
PARTY	OBAMA	ANNOYING	BOTH/DON'T KNOW
Democrat	26%	69%	5%
Republican	27%	72%	1%
Independent	23%	71%	6%

———————————————
The telephone survey of 625 registered Florida voters in the I-4 corridor -- all likely to vote in the November election -- was conducted Oct. 22–24 for the Tampa Bay Times, Bay News 9 and News 13.
The poll, which included respondents using land-lines and cell phones, was conducted by Mason-Dixon, a nonpartisan, Jacksonville-based company. The margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

 

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IT'S RYAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!HALLELUJAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Time to Rename the Catholic Church?

From: Real Clear Religion

It's time for the Catholic Church to restructure and rename itself. It's the only way to acknowledge the schism that has taken place over the last 40 years and is now reaching a crisis point.

Taking a cue from Judaism, the Church should now be divided into Orthodox and Reform camps. The liberals would be known as Orthodox Catholics. Conservatives would be Reform Catholics. You read that correctly.

Let me back up and explain.

This would make things like the recent decision by Georgetown University to let Kathleen Sebelius to speak at a graduation ceremony easier to debate.

Kathleen Sebelius, of course, is the Secretary of the Department Health and Human Services. She is a Catholic who is implementing President Obama's health care mandate, which will eliminate the first amendment rights of conscience for Catholics who do not want to pay for birth control. She is set to speak at the commencement of the Georgetown School of Public Policy on May 18.

There has been an uproar about Sebelius speaking at Georgetown, and a defense of the decision among other Catholics.

I am a part-time teacher at Georgetown University. It's a summer contract position teaching visiting high school kids, so I am far from being regular faculty or even that knowledgeable about the inner workings of the school (I also went to high school at Georgetown Prep). But in the three summers I've been there I have learned that Georgetown is not just one university, but several. There are conservative and liberal Catholics on campus, as well as all other kinds of people. Many conservative Catholics have insisted that Georgetown is no longer Catholic. In fact, Georgetown, a school in the Jesuit tradition, is Catholic -- that is, it represents the Catholic Church in America. And the Catholic Church, like Georgetown, is divided.

In fact the Church is so divided that it is now time to give the different factions their own names. I don't mean this sarcastically or with malice; as a journalist I simply believe that it will help us speak about Catholicism in the early 21st Century with clarity. It would also relieve tensions in the Church because each side, Reform and Orthodox, would know exactly what the other side believes in. When Catholics like the Kennedys or Andrew Sullivan or Kathleen Sebelius speak in favor of gay marriage or contraception, it would no longer be a shock or a scandal. Because giving each side their own designation beforehand would cut down on the outrage that often follows their individual pronouncements.

Forty years after Vatican II, the liberal philosophy of 1960s Catholicism has become a hardened orthodoxy. Liberal Catholics are as doctrinaire and dogmatic as the most reactionary medieval pope. They believe in peace (forgetting that the U.S. military allows said peace), social justice (except for the unborn), sexual freedom (poverty has nothing to do with broken families), and massive government spending (even if we can't afford it).

Is there a more predictable writer in America, particularly when it comes to Catholicism, than Maureen Dowd? When Chris Matthews addresses Catholicism on Hardball, is there any doubt what he will say? Has Andrew Sullivan read a single copy of any one of the dozens of books written by Pope Benedict? To ask the question is to answer it.

Conservative Catholics, on the other hand, are the real reformers.

A couple weeks ago I was at Georgetown to hear Representative Paul Ryan speak about his budget. The man stood there for more than an hour and presented fact after fact after fact about the economic catastrophe that is headed our way if the United States does not control its spending. The Catholic left, including both students and faculty at Georgetown, are protesting Ryan's budget. I should note that I disagree with Ryan slowing the rate of growth (not cutting) programs that serve the poor. But he is spot on when it comes to the absolute necessity of reforming social security and medicare.

The reaction on the Catholic left to Ryan's speech was remarkably fact free. There was a lot of screaming about cutting off the poor, but no engagement with the entitlement spending bomb that could ultimately bring down the economy. There has been a similar dynamic in the reaction to the Vatican's criticism of the orthodoxy, that is to say liberalism, of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious -- i.e., the nuns in the Unites States.

The Vatican is trying to reform the liberal orthodoxy of many women's religious orders in the United States. In reading the coverage of the issue, I noticed (I was not surprised) that whereas liberals like Georgetown professor and columnist E.J. Dionne were basing their arguments entirely on feelings, the conservative, or Reform, Catholics like George Weigel were citing facts. The response on the Catholic left was to accuse George Weigel -- official biographer of the pope, baseball fan and one of the most sanguine people I know -- of wanting to ethnic cleanse the nuns.

I'm sorry, but that kind of calumny indicates that the National Catholic Reporter represents not a different point of view, but a different religion. It's Orthodox Catholicism, a 1960s model where argument is based on emotions and feelings more than facts.

Finally, a very important word about Georgetown University. I noted above that Georgetown, like the Catholic Church in America, is divided. This does not mean that there is acrimony on campus; in fact, all I've seen is the opposite. It is a community where people like each other and the work they are doing, and where you can see a Reform (i.e. conservative) Catholic like Fr. James Schall next to Fr. Thomas Reese, an Orthodox (i.e. liberal) Jesuit who criticized Paul Ryan's budget on CNN the day Ryan spoke at the university.

Simply calling the different philosophies by their right names would only increase understanding of what the problem is. It would leave us free to stop expecting the other side to change.

George Will Obliterates Robert Reich

There Is No Choice On Medicare

From: National Review Online

The outrageous distortions about the Ryan Medicare reform plan are coming from people who are accelerating the program’s path to insolvency.

Medicare is being used as a piggy bank by Democrats, with $575 billion in payment cuts used to finance two massive new entitlement programs in Obamacare. And this April, the president proposed taking another $480 billion out of the program to lower the deficit.

Payments to providers will be cut so deeply that seniors will find it harder and harder to get care. Doctors will stop taking Medicare or go bankrupt. A whopping 87 percent of doctors say they will stop seeing or will restrict the number of Medicare patients they see, further shrinking the pool of providers and further restricting access to care.

The powerful, 15-member Independent Payment Advisory Board will use price controls to meet ever-elusive spending targets. Rationing is inevitable, especially of newer medicines and technologies.

House Energy and Commerce chairman Fred Upton explained, “Last year, Medicare expenditures reached $523 billion, but the income was only $486 billion — leaving a $37 billion deficit in just one year. And with 10,000 new individuals becoming eligible each day, it’s only going to get worse.”

Medicare is $38 trillion in the red, and it accelerated five years toward insolvency in just the last year, according to the Medicare Trustees’ latest report.

Sen. Marco Rubio captured it best in a new video, saying, “Medicare will go broke in as little as nine years … and anyone who is in favor of doing nothing to deal with this fact is in favor of bankrupting it.”

House Budget chairman Paul Ryan recognized that reality with his plan to begin modernizing the program, starting ten years from now. He wants to give baby boomers the option of private coverage in a plan that works much like the one members of Congress have today.

Access to coverage would be guaranteed, and payments would be tailored to meet a person’s age, health status, and income level.

Medicare is a government-run, politically-driven health-care program with so many gaps that people have to buy supplementary coverage. Not surprisingly, one fourth of today’s seniors have voluntarily decided to opt out of traditional Medicare by joining private plans in Medicare Advantage. These plans are competing for their business, offering better benefits often at lower costs to beneficiaries.

Rather than slashing this popular program as Obamacare does, it should be put on an equal and sound financial footing to continue to give seniors choices in the future. This model of seniors selecting from competing private plans is what Paul Ryan is proposing ten years hence, with premium-support payments to help pay for the cost of that plan.