the opinion shifts. medicare is one of those. this idea of diverting it from a benefit program where you go to the doctor and you're guaranteed certain benefits into a defined contribution program where the government would only guarantee you a check every year to buy private insurance goes back to 1998 first hatched by a commission chair by john breaux. there was not another democrat who endorsed the idea until alice rivlin endorsed a similar plan with ryan. even she has renounced her support given the specifics of the ryan proposal. so this is a big roll of the dice for house republicans. they're betting that next week all of them will vote for it. they're betting that the broad support for deficit reduction will outweigh what is a clear reluctance on the public to change a program that affects this many people. this really is ending medicare as it now exists and replacing it with something else. at a time when republicans won 60% of seniors in the 2010