Paul Ryan should be proud to advocate a plan that is described as a voucher.
If vouchers are good enough for children, why aren’t they good enough for the elderly? Oops! Those under 55 who will be elderly.
Ryan, who represents a congressional district in southeastern Wisconsin, insisted during a private White House meeting on Thursday, June 1, 2011, that President Obama cease and desist from distorting his Medicare plan. It is not a “voucher” system, it is “premium support,” he corrected.
Ryan should plead with Obama to distort it. The truth, as they say, could set you - a load of congressional Republicans - free…from their jobs in 2012, that is. The truth will hurt them.
What Ryan did at that meeting is as significant as Anthony Weiner’s antics. In fact, it was more important before news broke that Weiner texted a 17-year-old student in Delaware. Ryan’s initiative would drastically transform arguably the government’s most popular program.
Ryan showed us that he cannot stick to his position. What’s more, he openly injected politics into a session at a government facility.
Ryan recalled telling Obama: “It’s been misdescribed by the president and many others. I just said…that if we ‘demagogue each other at the leadership level, then we’re never going to take on our debt,’” as reported in The Washington Post.
His Medicare proposal would mainly subsidize citizens presently under 55 in private insurance plans rather than have the federal government continue to insure elderly Americans.
He maintained that this constitutes “premium support,” not the dreaded “voucher,” even though Republicans trumpet “school vouchers” so that children can avoid public schools.
Ryan’s statement won him a standing ovation from other House Republicans who joined him for the meeting.
Obama’s reply: “I’m the death panel-supporting, socialist, may-not-have-been-born-here president.” (from the Tribune Washington bureau.)
“It is a voucher plan,” added Obama spokesman Jay Carney, as quoted in the New York Times. “If you’re basically giving a subsidy of a set dollar figure that’s limited in terms of its growth and that won’t stay up with the growth in medical costs, I mean, that’s - you’re basically getting a certain amount of money to put towards buying insurance.”
Ryan proved on the first of June that he has no spine. It is a fundamental rule of life that if a person sets out on a course of action, one must stay with it and be fully willing to defend it. If you recognize that it is not working, then admit you are wrong and give it up.
I could respect Ryan if he admitted making a mistake, but he had to turn on the spin spigot when the Democrats turned the Medicare plan into a forceful campaign issue. In fact, his Medicare plan is now official House legislation, though it was subsequently rejected by the Senate.
Ryan may not believe in what he is doing. If he did, he would be grateful for the opportunity to defend it. Once attacks on his plan overwhelmed his party’s colleagues, he decided to scold the president for “misdescribing” the plan.
In the process, he openly injected campaign electioneering during the meeting inside a public facility, namely the White House. While everything in Washington is inherently political, public officials there usually do not engage in campaign tactics in any direct way during official or semi-official meetings.
Ryan’s plea was directly related to the 2012 election, when voters are expected to punish Republican incumbents in large measure because of Ryan’s Medicare plan. He plainly hoped that Democrats would lay off so that more Republicans will keep their jobs.
Obama did not lay off and we will be surprised if Democrats neglect to remind voters of Ryan’s idea of “premium supports.”
Now whose the wiener?
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