A Democrat Reaches Across the Aisle on Medicare

[Conservative]

RealClearPolitics - A Democrat Reaches Across the Aisle on Medicare

...Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney had very good words to say for Oregon's Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden.

The subject was the Medicare reform plan put forward in a Wall Street Journal opinion article that morning by Wyden and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan.

The Ryan-Wyden proposal provides for continuation of the current Medicare program for those now over age 55. For those younger, it would introduce in 2022 a "premium-support" system that would allow Medicare recipients to choose between the current program and a Medicare-approved private plan.

Those plans would be presented in competitive bidding and would have to be as comprehensive as traditional Medicare and would have to accept anyone who applied. There would be subsidies for low-income seniors.

Private insurers would thus have an incentive to design plans that would offer more generous benefits and lower costs than current Medicare. This kind of market competition has proved effective in the Medicare Part D prescription drug program enacted in 2003. Costs have been lower than government projections, and beneficiary satisfaction has been high.

The Obama White House was quick to reject Ryan-Wyden, as well. While Obama has said on occasion that the current Medicare program is not sustainable in the long term, he is now firmly in campaign mode and uninterested in anything other than bashing Republicans for hurting seniors.

Ryan-Wyden makes this kind of cheap-shot politics more difficult. And it comes when a recent poll showed that only 29 percent of voters -- less than one in three -- support the Obamacare legislation. So it's no surprise that Obama prefers Mediscare tactics to defending his administration's largest legislative accomplishment.

Wyden shows that at least one Democrat, even in campaign season, is more interested in good public policy than in politics.

 

[Truthmatters]

yeah you sont see a republican reaching acrossed the isle

 

[Claudette]

Bullshit.

 

[Full-Auto]

yeah you sont see a republican reaching acrossed the isle

I hope that has come to an end.

Pulling back stumps gets tiresome.

 

[Conservative]

yeah you sont see a republican reaching acrossed the isle

Ryan is a republican, dipshit. he worked with Wyden. By definition, that is reaching across the aisle.

 

[Truthmatters]

Only because Wyden moved closer to his position

 

[Conservative]

Only because Wyden moved closer to his position

It would literally stop your heart to admit a Republican actually 'tried' to work with a Democrat, wouldn't it. All the credit has to go to your side, instead of spreading it evenly, right?

Fucking partisan hack.

 

[WillowTree]

yeah you sont see a republican reaching acrossed the isle

I hope a reindeer leaves a pile of shit on yer rug.

 

[Full-Auto]

Only because Wyden moved closer to his position

It would literally stop your heart to admit a Republican actually 'tried' to work with a Democrat, wouldn't it. All the credit has to go to your side, instead of spreading it evenly, right?

Fucking partisan hack.

The only thing TM deserves is to be mocked.

Ok futility exercise

123,1 123,2 123,3

 

[Jackson]

Only because Wyden moved closer to his position

Open up your eyes and arms and see what comes in closer, my friend.

 

[Greenbeard]

Only because Wyden moved closer to his position

It would literally stop your heart to admit a Republican actually 'tried' to work with a Democrat, wouldn't it. All the credit has to go to your side, instead of spreading it evenly, right?

Fucking partisan hack.

Isn't the title of your thread "A Democrat Reaches Across the Aisle on Medicare"?

 

[Conservative]

Only because Wyden moved closer to his position

It would literally stop your heart to admit a Republican actually 'tried' to work with a Democrat, wouldn't it. All the credit has to go to your side, instead of spreading it evenly, right?

Fucking partisan hack.

Isn't the title of your thread "A Democrat Reaches Across the Aisle on Medicare"?

Which naturally means they should get all the credit, even though they worked side by side with a Republican, right?

putz.

 

[Greenbeard]

Which naturally means they should get all the credit, even though they worked side by side with a Republican, right?

Credit for what? Out of curiosity, what's the point of this thread? You've put forth an article offering a political--not a policy--analysis of Ryan-Wyden that makes a pretty simple point: Wyden has crossed over ("A Democrat Reaches Across the Aisle on Medicare") to give Ryan and the reactionaries cover ("Ryan-Wyden makes this kind of cheap-shot politics [i.e. bashing Republicans for hurting seniors] more difficult.") You then took umbrage when the same point was made in the thread. So is there something else you're trying to get at here?