Pulling up the ladder

[womzilla]

Here's a fact I hadn't known previously:

Catherine Rampbell at The New York Times... note that seniors—who are already beneficiaries of a government guarantee of health care—are disproportionately likely to oppose a government guarantee of health care.

(via)

Comments

[kightp.livejournal.com]

"Seniors" is a pretty big group, and still includes a shitload of people Older Than Me, which is to say, children of the 1940s and '50s, not the '60s. As a group, those elders have long been much more conservative than the rest of the population. It can show in some unsettling ways: People who've flocked to Oregon's coastal towns to retire, for instance, have shown themselves distinctly unwilling to vote for tax increases to support public schools. I think this is part of that same phenomenon, coupled with a bit of a worry about underfunded Medicare and Social Security and a hefty dose of "I earned mine, suckers, you do the same."

[wild-irises.livejournal.com]

And just about 50% of the women who get legal abortions don't believe they should be legal.

Don't even start me about my friend whose brother is disabled with Williams' syndrome. Their mother works the system in every conceivable way to get everything she can for him, and votes religiously against any disability support.

[men-in-full.livejournal.com]

My mom (79) just made that argument to me recently. She thinks that Obamacare is going to gut Medicare, which she really likes.