Ryan repeatedly claimed Rivlin's support
You know how Paul Ryan is defending his plan to eliminate Medicare by saying he had developed it with Alice Rivlin, President Clinton's budget director?
Well:
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) touted the help of former Clinton adviser Alice Rivlin — “a great, proud Democrat” — in promoting a key Medicare provision in his budget proposal Tuesday.
The only problem? Rivlin said she told the Republican she doesn’t support the final version of the measure he wrote into his budget — a provision Ryan referred to generally as the “Ryan-Rivlin” plan when rolling out his sweeping economic blueprint.
“We talked fairly recently and I said, ‘You know, I can’t support the version that you have in the budget,” Rivlin said in an interview with POLITICO. “I don’t actually support the form in which he put it in the budget.”
Rivlin identified two key problems with Ryan's proposal.
First, Ryan's proposal would eliminate Medicare, forcing all seniors to purchase subsidized private insurance. Rivlin favors making the subsidized private insurance an option, but would allow seniors to continue in the traditional Medicare program if they so choose.
Second, Ryan's proposal wouldn't keep up with the rising cost of health care. Rivlin says that would push "too much of the cost onto the beneficiaries."
Given those fundamental differences, the fact that this was Ryan's response to Politico's story is not exactly a shock:
Ryan’s office did not return multiple attempts for comment Tuesday.
Perhaps Ryan has confused courage and chutzpah.