2015考研英语阅读人纽约老人起来反抗

　　New York s old people rebel

　　纽约老人起来反抗

　　To the barricades for Medicare

　　老年保健医疗制度的障碍卡

　　A by-election may be a referendum on theRepublicans health plans

　　或许递补选举是对共和党保健方案的一次公民选票

　　NEW YORKis a blue state. Its governor, Andrew Cuomo, is aDemocrat, as are its two senators. But chunks of it arevery conservative, such as the reliably Republican26th congressional district in western New York. Itspans the suburbs of Buffalo, across hundreds ofacres of farmland, to the suburbs of Rochester.Registered Republicans outnumber registeredDemocrats there by around 30,000. George Bushhandily won the district in 2004, though he lost thestate by 19 points. In 2008 it was one of only fourNew York districts that voted for John McCain over Barack Obama. Chris Lee, the Republicanwho had represented the district since 2008, won a whopping 74% of the vote at the 2010mid-term election. He stepped down in February after a gossip website posted shirtlesspictures he had sent to a woman he had met on Craigslist.

　　纽约州在图中为蓝色区域。纽约州总检查长安德鲁??科莫和纽约州两名参议院是民主党员。不过大部分纽约人都很保守，如位于纽约西部的共和党的第26个国会区。它跨越了水牛城的郊区，横跨大片农田，一直延伸直到罗切斯特市。已注册的共和党人要比民主党人多上30,000人左右。2004年，尽管乔治??布什在纽约州的选票输给对手19个百分点，但他轻易地赢得了这个地区的选票。2008年，它是纽约州四个投给约翰麦凯恩的选票多于投给奥巴马的选票的地区之一。自2008年来，克里斯??李成为这个地区的代表，以遥遥领先的74%的选票赢得了2010年中期选举。他之所以于二月下台，是因为一个绯闻网站张贴出了他的赤膊照片，他曾经将这些照片发给在克雷格清单上认识的一个女人。

　　The special election to fill the Craigslist congressmans emptyseat will take place on May 24th. Jane Corwin, a wealthy conservative member of the stateAssembly, should on past form be a shoo-in, but recent polls indicate she has an unexpectedbattle on her hands. According to one recent poll Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, is just a fewpoints behind Ms Corwin, and another shows her in the lead. Jack Davis, the self-financedindependent tea-party candidate, is also performing solidly in the polls. At first glance itappears that Mr Davis, a former Republican who also ran for office as aDemocrat, may be siphoning support away from Ms Corwin.

　　克雷格清单事件导致国会议员职位空缺，这次特别选举将在5月24日举行。简??科温是纽约州参议院的一名富有的保守派成员，之前她很被看好，不过最近选票对她不利，这意味着她要投身到意料之外的选票交战中。据最近的一次选票显示，民主党人凯西??胡赫尔选票仅次于科温一些，另一次选票中显示胡赫尔居于领先地位。自行筹资的独立党派茶会选手杰克??戴维斯在近日的投票中的成绩也表现出强劲之势。戴维斯此前是一名共和党员，同时也作为民主党的候选人参加竞选，结果当然失败了，乍看之下，他似乎是通过虹吸原理，从科温那里赢来选票。

　　But the fall in Ms Corwins support could be more because of her endorsement of Paul Ryans proposal to replace Medicare, the public health-care scheme for the elderly, with diminishing government subsidies for private insurance. Her opponent, Ms Hochul, has made Medicare the main issue of her campaign. We can alter the national debate with one election, she says. Voting for her, she claims, would send a message to Republicans in Washington. She has received the backing of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, which previously campaigned for the Republican who represented the area until 2008. Her message is going down well in the district, where almost a quarter of voters are over 65 and almost two-thirds are over 45.

　　不过，科温选票下跌原因远不止如此，这缘于她对保罗??瑞安提议替换老年保健医疗制度的支持，老年保健医疗制度是对老年人公共保健的方案，该提议提出削减政府对私人医疗保险的津贴。她的竞争对手胡赫尔将老年保健医疗制度作为她竞选的主要方案，她说：我们可以通过一次选举改变全国民众争论。她宣称，投票给她，就以为着向华盛顿的共和党员发出信息。她已经获得了全国维护社会保障和医疗保险委员会的支持，此前该组织为共和党竞选，在2008年前共和党是该地区的代表。胡赫尔的思想在该地区十分受欢迎这里有四分之一的选民超过了65岁，三分之二选民超过了45岁。

　　A loss in the 26th would be a huge embarrassment for the Republicans, suggesting that many other seats might be at risk in 2012. So the party has been pumping money into the race, and has also started to send in the heavy artillery. Eric Cantor, the House majority leader, campaigned for Ms Corwin last week, and John Boehner, the speaker of the House, appeared at a Corwin fund-raising lunch on May 9th. He said there that the Democrats are hoping they can steal this election so they can continue to move their agenda, which is more taxes and higher spending. This got loud jeers from the faithful, but it remains to be seen whether ordinary elderly voters will agree.

　　对于共和党民来说，若第26区选举失败将会是一个莫大的羞辱，这意味着2012年有更多的国会议员的位置将受到威胁。因此，共和党在这次竞选中投入大量资金，并开始着手向重型火炮注资。众议院的多数党领袖埃里克??坎托上个星期为科温争取选票，众议院发言人约翰??博纳在5月9日参与了科温的筹资午餐会，他在聚会上说：民主党人希望他们能偷走此次共和党选举胜利的果实，这样他们就可以继续更改议事日程，增加税收、扩大支出。此番言论受到了忠诚的民主党人的大肆嘲笑，不过普通的老人选民是否同意这一观点，还有待观察。

　　The turnout tends to be low in special elections, as elsewhere; but politicians can usually depend on older voters to make the effort. In the 26th district, the voting intentions of the elderly have never been more important.

　　和其他地方一样，此次参与递补选举的人数偏少，但一般来说，政客们依赖于老人选民为此次选举投上关键票。在第26区，该地区老年人投票意图的重要程度可谓是史无前例。