Drug Plan's Start May Imperil G.O.P.'s Grip on Older Voters

From The New York Times:

Older voters, a critical component of Republican Congressional victories for more than a decade, could end up being a major vulnerability for the party in this year's midterm elections, according to strategists in both parties. Paradoxically, one reason is the new Medicare drug benefit, which was intended to cement their loyalty.

Democratic incumbents and challengers plan nearly 100 public forums around the country, armed with briefing books and talking points on a law that, party leaders assert, "was written by and for big drug companies and H.M.O.'s, not American families."

But pollsters say the Republicans' difficulties with the over-60 vote go beyond the complicated drug benefit, which began Jan. 1.

President Bush's failed effort to create private accounts in Social Security last year was also unpopular with many older Americans.

For years, Democrats counted on the over-60 vote to regularly return their party to power on Capitol Hill — the party of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Social Security and Medicare, as Democrats were quick to remind retirees.

But that changed in the 1990's, when that vote began tilting toward the Republicans.

One reason for the change was demographics — the passing of the New Deal generation and its replacement with retirees whose political loyalties were formed in a more Republican era. But it also reflected Republican success in muting or neutralizing the longtime Democratic advantage as the more trustworthy party on Social Security and Medicare. The passage of the Medicare prescription drug law in 2003 was intended to be the crowning accomplishment of that strategy.