Democrats are not reacting to kindly to the Paul Ryan-Ron "Useful Idiot" Wyden plan to end Medicare as we know it by making Medicare, essentially, a voluntary program.
"lipstick on the pig,” says Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio).
. . . .
Brown said the new plan is basically the same as a proposal Ryan previously rolled out that Democrats argue would essentially turn Medicare into a voucher system.
“This is dressed up and looks a little pretty —a little lipstick on the pig here but it really is not much different than Ryan number one,” Brown (D-Ohio) said Friday on the Bill Press radio show. “Ryan gets this reputation as being this thinker that's got new ideas. It's just the same recycled privatization stuff that Gingrich did in 1995 with Medicare.”
The Ryan-Wyden proposal would let older Americans pick between Medicare as it is now or a private insurance subsidy.
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The new plan from Ryan and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) is “the wrong way to reform Medicare,” White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said in a news release.
Pfeiffer said the new plan “would end Medicare as we know it for millions of seniors.” He invoked Gingrich’s 1995 statement that Medicare would “wither on the vine” when faced with competition from private insurers.
“The Wyden-Ryan scheme could, over time, cause the traditional Medicare program to ‘wither on the vine’ because it would raise premiums, forcing many seniors to leave traditional Medicare and join private plans,” Pfeiffer said.
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Some congressional Democrats were upset with Wyden, saying he risked providing cover for Ryan’s unpopular Medicare plan.
Rep. Pete Stark (Calif.), the top Democrat on the Ways and Means Health subcommittee, said the substance of the new proposal is no better than Ryan's earlier effort.
"Despite Wyden's claims otherwise, the Wyden-Ryan plan ends Medicare as we know it, plain and simple," Stark said in a statement.
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said he had not fully reviewed the proposal but that the premium support model, in general, often threatens seniors with higher costs.
“I have serious doubts about what they’re proposing,” Waxman said.
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The plan is DOA. For now. Should Republicans win the senate next year and hold the house, it could very easily be taken off the shelf. And should Republicans control both congress and the white house, look for Ron Wyden to become the Republicans' favorite Democrat.