SIGNS OF AN UPRISING

FOR ALL THEIR VAUNTED POLITICAL clout, elderly Americans responded with an odd silence last summer when Republicans announced that they planned to whack $270 billion out of anticipated Medicare spending over the next seven years. That is partly because the G.O.P. had contrived until recently to keep the details secret. But now the proposals are real, and lawmakers such as freshman Republican Michael Flanagan last week found the docility wearing off when they returned to their districts. In Chicago outraged seniors parked a steamroller in front of Flanagan's office to symbolize G.O.P. efforts to rush the cuts through Congress. In Connecticut,...