GOP As Defenders Of Medicare? Dems Find It Funny.

Republicans have spent the last week portraying Democratic health care reforms as a threat to Medicare benefits, dedicating themselves as the defenders of health care for seniors as President Obama presses for an overhaul of the nation's health care system. Democrats find this hilarious and maddening, and they're now pointing to an April 2 House vote in which a majority of Republicans supported ending Medicare as we know it.


As Ronald Brownstein notes, the Republican budget alternative submitted by Budget Committee Ranking Member Paul Ryan (R-WI), which drew support from nearly four-fifths of House Republicans April 2, would have converted Medicare into a voucher system, providing future retirees with a fixed amount of money to buy private insurance plans.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele made the defense of Medicare a cornerstone of the GOP's argument against President Obama's reform proposals in a Washington Post op-ed last week, offering a "seniors' health care bill of rights" and accusing Democrats of wanting to cut Medicare benefits. He continued his push Monday in a TV ad airing on national cable TV and in Florida.

Democrats' response to this, in general, has been to say: Republicans have been trying to dismantle Medicare since its inception, so why should anyone listen to them now?

"[F]or Republicans to say that you should trust us on Medicare is like Colonel Sanders guarding the chicken coop..." Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) told The Washington Post's Ezra Klein in an interview earlier this week. "I don't think people will buy it, since the guys peddling this stuff are the very people who have been trying to undermine and weaken Medicare for years and years."

Whether Democratic reforms would indeed "cut" Medicare is a tricky question: according to sources with knowledge of Senate Finance Committee negotiations, the plan is to cut $500 billion over the next ten years, but Democrats have said they won't cut any benefits--rather, they'd eliminate overpayments in Medicare Advantage subsidies and limit the growth of Medicare payment rates. The AARP says nothing it has seen (which may or may not include Finance Committee plans that aren't yet public) would cut Medicare benefits; Republicans suggest that, as some payments to hospitals and doctors increase less, fewer services will be rendered.

On Monday, the National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee launched radio ads against three House Democrats criticizing, among other things, Democratic reforms' purported impact on Medicare.

"And how do they pay for the Pelosi health plan? By cutting Medicare. Cutting Medicare by $500 billion according to President Obama's own projections. That's right: the Democratic health care plan will be paid for on the backs of America's senior citizens," the narrator says. Hear audio here.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee responded by noting that, along with the other Republicans, NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions voted on April 2 for the budget plan that included remaking Medicare into a private-insurance voucher system.

DCCC spokesman Ryan Rudominer emails this comment in response to the NRCC ads:

Representative Pete Sessions's vote to "end Medicare as it's presently known" just five months ago proves that Republicans' desperate attempt to portray their party as defenders of Medicare is nothing short of laughable hypocrisy and another shameless effort to exploit the fears of America's seniors. Does Representative Sessions agree with National Republicans' phony arguments on Medicare, a government program they've tried to dismantle since its inception, or does Sessions stand by his own recent vote to end it? The American people deserve to know the truth.

Republicans have continued to hammer those $500 billion in spending cuts over the next decade, alleging they will curtail Medicare benefits. Democrats not only dispute that fact--a matter probably more complex than it's being presented by either side--but to them, the GOP's pro-Medicare campaign sounds a lot like hypocrisy.