Rep. Paul Ryan, doggedly determined to ruin the GOP.
(Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
Millions of seniors who have paid into the Medicare program for the majority, if not all, of their working lives are
really going to love Rep. Paul Ryan's new messaging strategy for the beleaguered proposal: he's doubling down on the
Medicare = welfare talking point.
Speaking in broad terms Monday before the Economic Club of Chicago, House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) defended his controversial proposals to slash entitlement spending and privatize Medicare.
Though billed as an effort to revamp his widely criticized budget, Ryan avoided describing his health care plans in specific detail, eschewing even the friendly terms he and other Republicans have used to explain it since he first unveiled it earlier this year. Instead, Ryan reframed the entitlement cuts in his budget as "strengthen[ing] welfare for those who need it," and accused Democrats who have attacked his budget as engaging in class warfare....
"If I could sum up that disagreement in a couple of sentences, I would say this: Our plan is to give seniors the power to deny business to inefficient providers. Their plan is to give government the power to deny care to seniors," he said, according to prepared remarks.
He's two for two there—Medicare is really welfare, and having faceless insurance company employees denying your care is the answer. It seems like Ryan missed the whole point of this relaunching effort with his proposal. He was actually supposed to be trying to make it sound better to voters. Or to his own leadership and party hopefuls. But hey, he's got Sen. Scott Brown on board, so that's something.