Proposal to Replace Medicare Political Risk for GOP
A House Republican budget proposal that would turn Medicare into a voucher-based program poses political risk for incumbents in swing districts.
Proposal to Replace Medicare Political Risk for GOP
Thomas Fitzgerald, Inquirer Politics Writer
Most House Republicans from competitive Pennsylvania districts reacted cautiously Tuesday to Rep. Paul Ryan’s long-awaited budget proposal, which would slash $6 trillion in spending over 10 years and restructure taxpayer-financed health care for the elderly and the poor in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
Not freshman Rep. Lou Barletta, of the 11th District in northeastern Pennsylvania. “This is what I came here for,” he told reporters. “I came here to do the tough jobs that needed to be done.”
Under the Ryan plan, people 54 and under would not get Medicare from the federal government but would instead receive vouchers to purchase private insurance when they reach retirement age.
Barletta, a Republican, said he thinks voters will understand that current seniors won’t be harmed and that something must be done to cut future costs.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is betting they won’t. The party’s House campaign arm plans to associate Barletta and other vulnerable Republicans with the Medicare proposal, which Democrats argue will ultimately cause benefit cuts.
“Everyone agrees we must cut spending and tighten our belt, but Representative Lou Barletta is abandoning his responsibility to Pennsylvania seniors by backing a partisan plan to dismantle Medicare,” said Josh Schwerin, DCCC spokesman.
DCCC is targeting 14 Republican-held House districts that were carried by President Obama in 2008 and John Kerry in 2004. Five of them are in Pennsylvania: Barletta’s 11th; the 7th District held by Rep. Patrick Meehan; the 8th, of Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick; the 6th, held by Rep. Jim Gerlach; and the 15th District, represented by Charlie Dent.
Gerlach and Dent have survived repeated attempts to dislodge them over the past several cycles. The others were elected in 2010.
Dent was much more cautious, calling Ryan’s proposal “serious and sober,” but declining to say whether he’d support the particulars, according to the Morning Call of Allentown.
“The House Republican proposal marks an important step in what will be a serious, and at times difficult, conversation about America’s finances and the legacy this generation passes to the next,” Fitzpatrick, of Bucks County, said in a statement. “I hope that my constituents will take time to familiarize themselves with this proposal and be active participants in this national discussion.”
Hmmm. That doesn’t sound like a full embrace of the new Medicare math.
Meehan was enthusiastic about Ryan’s proposal, calling it a “bold vision” that attacks “an unsustainable debt crisis that is saddling our children and grandchildren with a crushing burden.” He didn’t say specifically whether he’d back the Medicare provision, however.
A bold vision that reduces tax on the super rich to 25% and cuts medicare for middle class elderly. I call it perverted vision and Palin will call it death panel.— Seed- Again, nothing in the republican plan asks the rich or oil corporations to sacrifice like the rest of us. Repubs just can't get over falling down to the big money crowd.— mike l
- If your not in the top 2% of income earners and you vote republican. Your a damn fool.— Bush Destroyed America
- Yea, really popular its gonna be when you say "GOP plan isn't good enough because it doesn't raise taxes enough". Of course, nothing's being said about the substance of the medicare proposal. As it is, there is already a program similar to that called Medicare Advantage.
- Medicare Advantage Plans are 100% no-risk for the insurance companies. Under the Republicans the health insurance companies were subsidized by the government for every policy they sold.
(I have the credentials to make that statement because when the plans came into existence I was a licensed health insurance agent.)
So the people who shout the loudest complaining about "Obamacare" don't have a clue when on the one hand they want less government subsidies yet scream when Obama eliminates the subsidies for the health insurance industry. Check it out, Aetna (wisely) stopped selling PPOs in Penna the second President Obama got elected. - Let's hear it for the health care insurance industry.
Their Death Panels are far more trustworthy and compassionate than anything the government could dream up in their wildest. Don't believe it? Just ask Sarah Palin or Michele Bachmann...— He Visto Todo - Not to mention that a lot of people aren't taking Medicare right now because they keep adding new regulations and they payouts are frozen. This would save money just by getting rid of a huge part of the Medicare apparatus.
- Yes. Serious and sober...heartless...greedy....unfair too.— pogo
Comment removed.- Okay, since the de rigueur buzz is "eliminate entitlements," let's look at entitlements. Corporate Amerika benefits the most from government entitlement programs, hands down: no taxes, many write-offs, and the government will even help offset the costs of production as well as R & D...how's that for an entitlement?
All my working life (I'm 73) I have paid into FICA aka Federal Insurance Contributions Act, this is my money as well as every other worker who has paid into FICA - it's not an ENTITLEMENT PROGRAM! It is an insurance benefits program, it isn't the government's money, it isn't the politicians money, it is money paid into an insurance plan by every single worker in this country.
From 1937 through 2009 this insurance program paid out $11.3 trillion dollars, through that same period it has taken in some 13.9 trillion.
It also maintains what is known as Social Security Trust Funds (interest bearing), which cover any shortfalls in worker contributions and it has been used substantially in the past. Why? Well, we no longer have workers, we no longer have manufacturing, and the workers (service industry) we do have don't make enough in wages to offset what is being paid out today. That plus the fact that the government has raided the SS Trust Fund for their own nefarious uses leads us to where we are today.
Again, this is not an entitlement program!— Iconsmasher - I noticed this article has been up since last night and the usual GOP idiots are staying away from it like it's the plague.— Bush Destroyed America
- The CBO numbers are in. Ryan's plan shows just why no one with a sense of intelligence should ever take the GOP seriously.
Bad News for Paul Ryan's Hackery
The CBO has evaluated the Ryan plan.
In addition to acknowledging that seniors, disabled and elderly people would be hit with much higher out-of-pocket health care costs, the CBO finds that by the end of the 10-year budget window, public debt will actually be higher than it would be if the GOP just did nothing.
Under the so-called "extended baseline scenario" -- a.k.a. projections based on current law -- debt held by the public will grow to 67 percent of GDP by 2022. Under the GOP plan, public debt would reach 70 percent of GDP in the same window.
Whoops! Young Gun's plan actually increases the debt until his Medicare is killed. Then it begins to decrease. However, that's also when old people begin to be royally screwed.
In other words, the spending cuts Republicans would realize in the first 10 years would be outpaced by deficit increasing tax-cuts, which Ryan also proposes. After that, debt projections under the plan improve decade-by-decade relative to current law. That's because 2022 would mark the beginning of the Medicare privatization plan. That's when, CBO finds, "most elderly people would pay more for their health care than they would pay under the current Medicare system."
If the current Medicare system were allowed to continue, CBO found that an average 65-year-old beneficiary's costs would be only 25 percent of what it'd be in the individual private insurance market. Under the GOP plan, those costs would jump to 68 percent.
We can assume that the CBO will eventually issue projections showing a negative impact on economic growth. We can also assume that both the Republicans and the DC media will ignore it.— Bush Destroyed America - Two choices- ignore the problem or confront the problem. Unfortunately, our political "leaders" are scared out of their wits to confront hard challenges. The major problem this country faces is our deficit. The cost of Medicare is a significant portion of this. We need Medicare Reform. Republicans have offered a solution? Democrats answer to Medicare problem? Oh, they have none.
www.mymedicareadvisor.com— www.mymedicareadvisor.com
You can reach Tom Fitzgerald at 215-854-2718 or tfitzgerald@phillynews.com.
Reach Thomas at tfitzgerald@phillynews.com.
