Medicare

UPDATE: It turns out that Paul Ryan hasn't endorsed Todd Akin, even though Akin's political director explicitly promoted Ryan's support as an endorsement. Ryan says he was only praising Akin's work helping craft the budget to eliminate Medicare as we know it. 

Politico: "Missouri Democrats no longer have to worry about branding Rep. Todd Akin as for 'the Ryan plan.' He's now actually Paul Ryan's candidate."

It's good to hear Todd Akin continuing his work to make himself as unelectable as possible, doubling down on the disastrous privatization idea for Medicare and calling for the privatization of Social Security.

As Think Progress ably explains, privatizing Social Security would entail massive new costs to the government to pay for the shift to a new system, while leaving everyone but the very wealthiest seniors more vulnerable and with less of a safety net.

Todd Akin's absurd and radical assertion this weekend that Medicare -- and perhaps Medicaid -- are unconstitutional is troublesome.

More troublesome is the fact that Todd Akin has been talking like this for some time now.

Last year, for instance, he told the entire country on the House floor that the federal government should "get out of the business" of Medicare, Medicaid, education, housing, food stamps and other crucial programs. In his mind, those are all possible functions for state and local governments, but Congress should take action to end them at the federal level. According to Akin's radical worldview, the only appropriate functions of the federal government are "simply managing the economy [and] providing for the national defense."

Watch it for yourself:

Instead of typical in-district townhall meetings, Rep. Todd Akin is touring the state meeting with groups similar to the central Missouri tea party activists he met with in Fulton on Saturday. He seems to be serving up some rhetorical red meat to these groups, given that at the Saturday meeting he suggested Medicare is unconstitutional. 

In a meeting Saturday with Central Missouri tea party activists, U.S. Rep. Todd Akin said he has doubts about the constitutionality of Medicare and thinks global warming 'is highly suspect.'...

Akin’s remarks questioning the constitutionality of Medicare came as he was explaining his vote against prescription coverage under the medical plan for seniors and people with disabilities. He said it was too expensive, and 'it was expanding an entitlement I wasn’t too comfortable with to begin with.'

Asked about the remarks after the meeting, Akin said, 'I don’t find in the Constitution that it is the job of the government to provide health care.' 

But as a practical matter, he said, Medicare cannot be repealed. 'Now people have contributed their money to it. Now people are dependent on it. Now we have an obligation, and we are between a rock and a hard place on it. I want to manage it to give people who depend on it the best quality health care we can.'

Yesterday, around 100 concerned Missourians met in Ballwin to express their concern with Rep. Todd Akin's proud support for Paul Ryan's budget that would eliminate Medicare as we know it, and call on Akin to stand up for Missouri's middle class families.  But in what appears to be a disturbing pattern, Akin refused to meet with constituents who might not share his narrow view on the world.

For more on the community town hall too scary for Todd Akin, check out coverage at Show Me Progress and x. 

You have been warned: 

Thousands of Tea Party movement activists are expected to descend this month on town hall meetings across key battleground states as part of an intensifying campaign ahead of the 2012 presidential and congressional elections.

Their priority is a plan to slash Medicare costs proposed by House of Representatives Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan

This is despite polling in Missouri that shows 77 percent of Missouri respondents opposed Medicare cuts.

Today in Damage Control: "When asked this week about his May 25 vote to consider the Ryan plan, Blunt defended his vote but not the plan. He said he voted to consider the plan because he wanted to encourage debate on a proposal that seeks to balance the budget. 'I don't agree with everything that was in it,' the Springfield Republican said."

I voted the right way, but I can't support the legislation I supported.  Brilliant!

Remember that at the time, Blunt was defending the plan and said it's provisions to end Medicare as we know were just dandy. "I don't think it's extreme at all," Blunt said. "It's not a radical idea." 

"Figure out a straight answer to the Ryan plan question before going on the radio."

Yesterday, Sarah Steelman went much further than simple praise for Rep. Paul Ryan's budget plan, saying she "would love to be able to vote for the Ryan plan." 

PoliticMo has more details: 

Ten weeks after the Paul Ryan budget proposal was announced, and two weeks since the U.S. Senate took a preliminary on the proposal,  Senate hopeful Sarah Steelman, R., said she would vote for the plan.

She announced her position in a web town hall hosted by the SEMO Times in Poplar Bluff, Mo.

“I would love to be able to vote for the Ryan plan. It’s a very serious plan and he had a lot of courage to put that out on the table and I’m glad he did,” Steelman said. “It’s definitely a good start.”

h/t St. Louis Activist Hub 

After criticizing the core component of the plan to eliminate Medicare as we know it put forward by Rep. Paul Ryan, Todd Akin and supported by the full GOP delegation in Washington, Sarah Steelman says it's not right to say she opposes or supports the plan.

Here's audio of an interview conducted late yesterday afternoon, captured and posted by the MDP: 

"I don't think it's an either/or question on the Ryan Plan. I think those people in Washington, both Republicans and Democrats, say ‘Oh you gotta take a position on this.’ Well, there's some things I like about it, there's some things I don't like about it. I'm still working through it and looking at it and as an economist, I'm going to make my own conclusions about it."

How is she "still working through it" at this point?  And aren't legislators elected to cast yes or no votes on things ? 

Despite campaign advisor Rick Wilson's assertion that the plan to eliminate Medicare as we know it "has become a litmus test with Republican voters," Sarah Steelman outlined her clearest position yet on the plan.  She thinks it's "a start," but opposes a core element of the GOP plan -- the vouchers that will leave seniors paying far more for health care than they are now. 

According to Steelman, the budget legislation with the Medicare changes put forward by Reps. Paul Ryan and Todd Akin includes the "cuts" to Medicare Advantage that Republicans campaigned against in 2010, and "I don't like the idea of vouchers that don't keep up with the skyrocketing costs of health insurance."

Watch it:

"You're either on the Marco Rubio/Paul Ryan side or the Harry Reid/Barack Obama side," said Steelman advisor Rick Wilson.  Does this mean that his candidate is on the "Harry Reid/Barack Obama side?"

Steelman's actual position here is nonsense -- she says Ryan and Akin have put forward a "good start," but that it cuts too much from Medicare.  But expect her opposition to the new GOP "litmus test" to make some real waves.

Who could have guessed that Americans don't like the plan to privatize Medicare supported by Todd Akin, Roy Blunt, Vicky Hartzler, Jo Ann Emerson, Billy Long, Sam Graves and Blaine Luetkemeyer?  

According to the new CBS News poll, 31 percent of Americans support converting Medicare into a sort of voucher program. Fifty-eight percent said they support keeping the program’s existing structure intact.

[The House GOP plan supported by all of the Missouri Republicans in Washington] plan would eliminate the traditional single-payer Medicare system and replace it with vouchers that could be used in the private insurance market.

Via TPM

"This has become a litmus test with Republican voters. You're either on the Marco Rubio/Paul Ryan side or the Harry Reid/Barack Obama side."

That's what Sarah Steelman advisor Rick Wilson told the Palm Beach Post about the plan from Paul Ryan and Todd Akin to eliminate Medicare as we know it.  

Any questions?

According to a poll from CNN, people have some serious concerns about the Ryan/Akin plan's effect on Medicare:

The poll indicates that 58 percent of the public opposes the Republican plan on Medicare, with 35 percent saying they support the proposal...

h/t Think Progress 

Todd Akin with Paul Ryan at the unveiling of the House GOP's plan to end Medicare as we know it

Roy Blunt joined 39 of his GOP colleagues in the U.S. Senate yesterday to vote for the House GOP budget that would eliminate Medicare as we know it by privatizing the program and forcing seniors to pay almost double what they currently pay for health care.

All but five GOP Senators voted to gut Medicare to pay for trillions in new tax breaks for millionaires and corporate special interests

h/t Politico Playbook