Rep. Paul Ryan, ready to try to sell his plan, again. (Kevin Lamarque/REUTERS)
Apparently, at least some in House leadership have decided to double-down on the whole "
our Medicare plan isn't unpopular, just misunderstood thing, and have decided that all they really need is new messaging to make the American people realize how much they'll love having next to worthless vouchers instead of actual insurance. That's the
report from TPM, which says that Rep. Paul Ryan and his team are out again, trying to sell the plan.
House Republican leaders plan to relaunch their proposal to turn Medicare into a privatized voucher program. Leading the charge will be the GOP budget's architect, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), who is scheduled to deliver an address on the topic at the Economic Club of Chicago on Monday....
Ryan will have to choose his message carefully in order to reassure the conservative base that the GOP's appetite for cuts is undiminished while reassuring moderate Republicans in swing districts that the issue won't wreck their re-election prospects....
Republican freshmen, who powered the GOP to the majority last year, did not abandon the budget, but became increasingly alarmed that criticisms of their plan were gaining traction. At one point a group of Republican lawmakers held a press conference calling for a bipartisan truce on attacks over entitlements. As participants conceded in a joint letter, many of them had run campaign ads reassert their support for the plan. But Speaker John Boehner hinted the same day that "political realities" made it difficult to gain traction. The Medicare proposal looked close to dead after a crucial House chairman, Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI), announced he would not advance Ryan's plan through his Ways and Means committee.
This has all been very interesting to watch and will get more so this week if Republican senators are forced to take a vote on the plan, which is likely. Then we'll see just how effective the new "messaging" on this Medicare debacle has been.