Republicans just can't quit the Paul Ryan Path to Poverty which calls for transforming Medicare into a glorified coupon system that would force senior citizens into purchasing private health insurance.
Former governor and Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush spoke at an event sponsored by Americans for Prosperity yesterday where he called for "phasing out" Medicare.
"The left needs to join the conversation, but they haven’t. I mean, when [Rep. Paul Ryan] came up with, one of his proposals as it relates to Medicare, the first thing I saw was a TV ad of a guy that looked just like Paul Ryan … that was pushing an elderly person off the cliff in a wheelchair. That’s their response."
Yes. What of it?
“And I think we need to be vigilant about this and persuade people that our, when your volunteers go door to door, and they talk to people, people understand this. They know, and I think a lot of people recognize that we need to make sure we fulfill the commitment to people that have already received the benefits, that are receiving the benefits. But that we need to figure out a way to phase out this program for others and move to a new system that allows them to have something – because they’re not going to have anything.”
The next TV ad can feature a guy that looks like Jeb Bush.
This isn't necessarily a surprise but it's still astonishing that Republicans would wed themselves to Paul Ryan's disastrous plan on an annual basis. America has already voted on Paul Ryan's plan and we resoundingly rejected it by reelecting President Obama with an electoral landslide.
This idea that Medicare will vanish in the near future unless we kill it first is not supported by the facts. Federal officials announced yesterday than Medicare will be solvent until at least 2030 under current law.
It remains to be seen what other aspects of the Paul Ryan Path to Poverty the Republicans will run on in 2016, but if they follow a pattern established by Congress and the garbage appropriations bills pushed through the House of Representatives during consecutive sessions, we can expect to see them run on most of Ryan's plan if not the whole thing.