Archive: GOP is back with a revised Medicare overhaul

For a moment last year, Republican Rep. Paul Ryan’s star shone brightly as he unveiled his party’s bold deficit-whacking budget proposal -- that is, until seniors rebelled over his plan to dramatically change Medicare.

The backlash was swift and decisive. Democrats attacked the GOP, saying the plan would destroy the Medicare safety net, and the earnest Wisconsin wunderkind slid from the spotlight. When he walked the halls of the Capitol, he popped in his iPod earbuds, tuning out the noise.

Now Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman, is returning to center stage as the GOP doubles down on his conservative budget priorities -- including tax cuts for the wealthy and a new version of his plan for major changes in Medicare.

With an edgy new campaign-style video and a flurry of Ryan appearances timed with his upcoming budget release, Republicans believe theirs is a winning strategy: one that will showcase the GOP as willing to make tough choices to reduce federal deficits and present voters with a contrast to President Obama. Democrats believe just as strongly that the Ryan strategy will be a winner for them.

A Medicare overhaul, in particular, is a risky move in an election year when the GOP is trying to topple Obama, defend its House majority and win the Senate. Ryan won plaudits from some budget hawks and think tanks for being willing to tackle the difficult politics of Medicare cuts.

But average voters overwhelmingly support keeping Medicare as is. They also favor Obama’s approach of taxing wealthy Americans more heavily to bring budgets into balance, rather than offer more tax cuts, polls show.

“We’re just going to keep doing it and doing it, to show that we’re serious and we’re committed and we have a vision and a plan,” said Ryan, whose Medicare proposal was initially dismissed by Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich as “right-wing social engineering” but has since drawn backing from Gingrich, rival candidate Mitt Romney and others.

“People are ready to be talked to like adults, not like children. They know that something is wrong. They know this government’s off its rails,” Ryan, 42, said between fast bites of cafeteria takeout lunch in his budget committee office.

“And I really think the politics, if we help push it, will turn to rewarding the people who are bold in taking on the problems -- and penalizing the people who don’t.”

Democrats are thrilled with the political opportunity. Ryan’s original proposal would eventually have replaced Medicare’s guarantee of medical coverage with a plan that would have provided future seniors a fixed amount with which to buy their own insurance. Democrats see that as a prime example of the GOP’s rightward overreach since taking the House majority.

Ryan’s new budget is expected to include a revised provision backed by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) that addresses some of the criticisms. It would still give future seniors a fixed amount, but it would allow them to use the money to stay in the traditional Medicare program. They would have to pay out of pocket if the costs of the program were higher than the government subsidy -- or buy an alternative plan.

Wyden is likely to oppose the Ryan budget’s other provisions, limiting the patina of bipartisanship the GOP hoped for.

Democrats are unimpressed with the change. “You can dress up a pig, but it’s still a pig,” said Rep. Steve Israel of New York, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “The problem with Republican budgets is they consistently ask seniors to be the first to sacrifice their Medicare without asking millionaires to give up a nickel.”

Israel’scommittee is circulating a horror-movie-style poster with Ryan’s image, alongside that of House Speaker John A. Boehner(R-Ohio) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), and the tagline: “Just when you thought Medicare was safe -- They’re back -- This time they want to finish it for good.”

Less partisan budget experts say Ryan deserves credit for being willing to talk about Medicare spending, but that most seniors under his plan would face considerably higher costs for healthcare, in some cases many thousands of dollars a year. Some also call his proposals unrealistic for refusing to consider any increase in tax revenue to rein in the nation’s debt.

Of concern to some, the budget is expected to avoid agreed-upon Pentagon cuts in favor of deeper reductions to other domestic programs.

Ryan dismisses such challenges. To him, losses such as the one the GOP suffered in last year’s special election are merely bumps along a career path trying to avert a national debt crisis. A protege of Republican Jack Kemp, Ryan calls himself a next-generation supply-sider who matches the earlier conservatives’ zest for lower taxes with a new emphasis on deficit reduction.

“To me it’s sort of a moral issue. There is right and there is wrong. There are absolutes in life, and it is wrong to knowingly do nothing to prevent a catastrophe from happening,” said Ryan, a Roman Catholic who says he prays daily for the country to be on better fiscal footing.

Too many politicians fear the so-called third rails of politics, he says, adding, “I’ve been hugging these third rails for years now, and I didn’t die. I’m trying to show my colleagues you can do this.”

Within the GOP’s own ranks there is some dissent over the party’s approach, but it is mostly from conservatives who want even steeper cuts. They could force a showdown that would pose a new challenge to Boehner’s control of the House majority.

Conservatives never supported the debt ceiling deal Boehner made last summer in a compromise with the Democratic-led Senate. They refuse to be held to it.

But reneging on that agreement could derail the budget process and lead to another threat of a government shutdown when the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1. Republican leaders hope to avoid that outcome after earlier standoffs proved politically toxic for their party. They have struggled ever since to convince voters they can competently run the country.

“Our members want to show the American people a path forward,” Boehner said recently. “And we will.”

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lisa.mascaro@latimes.com