Medicare reform

A recent National Journal article misrepresents the effects of the proposed Medicare reforms in the House of Representatives on current seniors.

Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said that Medicare reform would be a “defining issue” for his party’s plan to win back control of the House of Representatives next year. Speaking with reporters this morning, Israel said that the House Republicans’ approach to reforming the senior health care entitlement program shows the difference between the Democrats and the GOP. But he failed to offer specifics of the Democrats’ own Medicare plan.

In June 2009, President Obama said, “Medicare and Medicaid are the single biggest drivers of the federal deficit and the federal debt by a huge margin.” Two years later, Paul Ryan and the House Republicans have advanced a serious proposal to deal with these two biggest drivers of our debt.

On a day when many pundits and (allegedly) objective news reporters are declaring the Medicare reform Paul Ryan proposed caused the Republican to lose in New York's special congressional election, Ryan is out with a new video defending his plan and attacking Obama's.

When asked about Medicare reform this afternoon in the Capitol, Senator Scott Brown (R-Mass.) said, "We need to stop playing games and we need to come up with some solutions." What solutions might those be?

Kathleen Sebelius, President Obama’s secretary of Health and Human Services, lowered the bar of political discourse still further yesterday. Sebelius said that, under the proposed Medicare reforms authored by Paul Ryan and passed overwhelmingly by the House of Representatives, many seniors would have their voucher money run out and would either have to “scrape together charity care” or else “die sooner.”

Rasmussen finds that 40 percent of likely voters haven't heard enough about Ryan's plan to have an opinion about it, while 26 percent support it and 34 percent oppose it. What does this tell us? The fight over the budget remains very much unsettled.

Oh goody: "Trump Will ‘Probably’ Run as Independent If He Doesn’t Win GOP Nomination"

Kevin Williamson: "The Democrats want 2012 to be about anything other than deficit-reduction. Expect an onslaught on the social-issues front, from abortion subsidies to gay marriage. Conservatives should not let them change the subject."