5 Apr 2011 2:13 pm
FLASHBACK: Paul Ryan [R-WI] Repeatedly Attacked Democrats For Supposedly Raiding And Cutting MedicareThis week, House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) unveiled a budget plan that would include “more than $4 trillion in federal spending reductions over the next decade,” largely by altering and cutting a number of entitlement and social safety net programs. One of the most significant cuts in the budget involves Medicare. Ryan’s plan would essentially end the program’s existence as a single-payer public insurance program, forcing seniors to instead choose among private insurance plans with inadequate government subsidies provided to pay for care. This would effectively privatize the program and involve a massive cut to the program that will significantly endanger the health and well-being of the nation’s seniors. Yet Ryan wasn’t always so upfront about his desire to cut Medicare, one of this nation’s most successful and treasured programs. During the debate over the Affordable Care Act, Ryan latched onto the bill’s cuts — which targeted the inefficient and unnecessary private insurance-administered Medicare Advantage program — and repeatedly attacked reformers for supposedly cutting or raiding Medicare:In an op-ed written in a local paper in October 2009, Ryan said that President Obama broke his “promises” to seniors by cutting Medicare. He complained that, “in order to pay for the trillion dollar health care overhaul making its way through Congresshundreds of billions of dollars will be cut from Medicare.” [10/1/09] In a Newsmax interview, Ryan complained that the health bill would involve “10 years of tax increases and Medicare cuts to pay for six years of spending.” [2/25/10]On his congressional website, Ryan complained that the health care bill “raises taxes by more than a half-trillion dollars over the next 10 years—the largest tax increase in American history—and cuts more than a half-trillion dollars from Medicare to finance this new entitlement.” [2010]Ryan gave one of his strongest denunciations of the health care bill’s supposed Medicare cuts at a meeting between President Obama and congressional Republicans at the Blair House in 2010. Ryan said that the health bill “treats Medicare like a piggy bank” because it raids” half a trillion dollars out of it: RYAN: Now, when you take a look at the Medicare cuts, what this bill essentially does is treats Medicare like a piggy bank. It raids a half a trillion dollars out of Medicare not to shore up Medicare’s solvency but to spend on this new government program.Watch ItBy essentially privatizing Medicare and delivering huge cuts to one our nation’s most treasured programs, and harming the health of seniors in the process, Ryan shows that he has no interest in protecting it. His criticism of cuts to Medicare Advantage over the past few years has exposed itself as nothing more than political opportunism and cynicism.Ryan is not the only one who criticized Obama for cutting Medicare.SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH): “Democrats are peddling talking points that are directly contradicted by their actual legislation. They are holding a press conference to pat themselves on the back for protecting’ Medicare, even though their government takeover of health care bill would cut seniors’ Medicare benefits by $500 billion. Are you kidding me?” [10/30/09]MAJORITY LEADER ERIC CANTOR (R-VA): “It’s paid for on the backs of seniors, which cuts Medicare by over $500 billion.” [Fox and Friends, 11/4/09]WAYS AND MEANS CHAIRMAN DAVE CAMP (R-MI): “And let me just say, seniors’ health is too important to risk on one gigantic bill that cuts a half a trillion dollars in Medicare, that’s being drafted in secret behind closed doors.” [10/28/09]This morning on NBC’s today show, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus audaciously tried to have it both ways — criticizing Obama for cutting Medicare subsidies while endorsing Ryan’s Medicare-busting proposal:RNC CHAIRMAN REINCE PRIEBUS: [Obama] has completely trashed Medicare by raiding it by $500 billion to provide us a government-run health care program that nobody wants. I think even the hardest Democrats would agree that if we don’t get serious about where Medicare, and Social Security and Medicaid are going in this country, then we are about to walk off a fiscal cliff.Watch ItThey accused Obama of trashing Medicare, but they're going to murder it. Edited by MistyBlue, 05 April 2011 - 02:52 PM.