Medicare: Obama Vs. Ryan

Four Republicans Voted Against Ryan's Budget

Keep in mind, this isn't the 2011 budget, which faced the recent shutdown drama. This is the 2012 budget. The House passed Ryan's budget with the exception of four House republicans and all of the democrats:

Republicans voting against the Ryan plan were Reps. Ron Paul of Texas, Walter Jones of North Carolina, David McKinley of West Virginia, and Denny Rehberg of Montana. msnbc

The bill is not expected to pass the Senate, which democrats still control. Paul Ryan's budget essentially dismantles Medicare and Medicaid. It repeals the healthcare act.
Politico explains the no votes.
Rehberg:

In a statement, Rehberg said there were "too many unanswered questions with regard to Medicare reform" for him to get to "yes."

Ron Paul, the wild one:

The least surprising of the nos, Paul lambasted the plan for not going far enough.

Ryan's Moment of Adulation Stolen Away Just Like That

Republicans say Obama's call to keep Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security intact was a political speech. No it wasn't. It's a cause. It's a values system, one that says the deficit won't be reduced on the backs of the poor and the middle class, one that says the wealthy aren't gods, one that says this country was founded on beliefs that we take care of seniors, poor, disabled and otherwise vulnerable populations, one that says there must be SHARED SACRIFICE. There have to be tax increases as well as spending cuts.
Republicans take turns to raise their fists in anger:

Plouffe and Ryan on Meet the Press April 10

Obama will lay out his plan to cut the debt and deficit next week. One thing stood out during the roundtable -- the perception that democrats could care less about the deficit and debt. Chuck Todd certainly felt that. If that's true, republicans will lead on the solution and we will be stuck with the whole job-creators-are-gods ideology.
Full video:

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Paul Ryan's 2012 Budget Proposal

This is the GOP's longer term budget plan (read it here). Seems to me republicans worship "job creators." But you can't just do everything for the "job creators" without also worshipping the workers who work at those jobs created. When you value one group more than the other, when you place more importance on one group, naturally you get an imbalance.
White House press secretary statement:

The President believes that dramatically reducing America’s long-term deficit is essential to growing our economy and winning the future. Today, Congressman Ryan laid out his vision for how to do that, and he is right that we cannot solve our fiscal challenge by focusing on the narrow slice of domestic spending that has occupied so much of our recent attention. But while we agree with his ultimate goal, we strongly disagree with his approach. Any plan to reduce our deficit must reflect the American values of fairness and shared sacrifice. Congressman Ryan’s plan fails this test. It cuts taxes for millionaires and special interests while placing a greater burden on seniors who depend on Medicare or live in nursing homes, families struggling with a child who has serious disabilities, workers who have lost their health care coverage, and students and their families who rely on Pell grants. The President believes there is a more balanced way to put America on a path to prosperity. But despite our differences, all of us – Democrats and Republicans – have an obligation to find common ground in a way that is true to our values and meets our responsibilities to the American people.

House Republicans New Pledge to Give Wealthy More Money

Representative Paul Ryan said the reason companies aren't hiring is uncertainty. I'd say the reason companies aren't hiring is they are profitable with the people they have and they aren't seeing increased demand for their goods and services yet. That will come. For now, Americans are paying debts and saving, getting their financial houses in order.

At the top of republicans' list for creating jobs is giving more money to wealthy people.
Read the "Pledge" here.

Paul Ryan on Bipartisanship Possibilities

Andrea Mitchell tells Paul Ryan he hopes he doesn't get "tea partied" for Obama's support, in part, of Ryan's budget proposal. Republicans have noted that Ryan's proposal is not theirs.
Ryan says democrats are still trying to pass the healthcare bill. I think it's a little late for that. Democrats gave up their chance to pass healthcare when they couldn't get their act together. Now they have to work with republicans. But the republicans shouldn't be dictating to Obama what needs to happen before the meeting on Feb. 25. They need back off for once, show a little humility and respect. We elected a president. You'd think that an election didn't even happen.

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Paul Ryan Gives Republican Weekly Address April 4

This is the same message, different person. Ryan talks about the republican budget, which was DOA. The day after they released their budget, the real one, on April Fool's day, the House approved Obama's budget.

Yesterday, the Senate approved a budget resolution 55-43. In the Senate, only two democrats voted against the budget, Sens. Evan Bayh, of Indiana, and Ben Nelson, Nebraska.

While Obama's Away Republicans Release Budget

This is their real budget, one with numbers, as opposed to the one they released last week, which would undo the stimulus, cut taxes and drill baby drill. Congress is about to vote on Obama's budget. Read the GOP budget here.

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Paul Ryan:

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Republicans Have Excuse Note for Their Budget

They couldn't decide whether to release a flimsy budget or wait to release the real thing. So they released the flimsy "budget."

Decisions, decisions, decisions. Looks like this decision was a tough one for them. Good thing they're not making the important decisions.

Politico: Minority Leader John Boehner, Minority Whip Eric Cantor, GOP Conference Chairman Mike Pence and Rep. Paul Ryan worked for weeks on a plan, staffers say, without any serious philosophical disagreements.

But over time, Cantor-Ryan and Boehner-Pence camps split over questions of tactics and timing.

Pence, with Boehner’s blessing, wanted to unveil an abbreviated “blueprint” Thursday to counter Obama’s criticism and arm members with new talking points heading into this weekend – even if it meant that their plan wouldn’t have much in the way of details.

Cantor and Ryan wanted to wait until Ryan’s staff produced a fully-fleshed-out alternative to Obama’s $3.6 trillion spending plan, with specific numbers on spending and tax cuts – even if it meant waiting a few more days to get it out.

Cantor and Ryan ultimately caved in, and what they got was the worst of both worlds: a thin, glossy “blueprint” that was ridiculed by Democrats and cable news anchors, and a nasty internecine scrap that culminated with one GOP aide telling POLITICO that Pence had thrown Ryan “under the bus” in an “egocentric rush” to grab the spotlight.

Orszag Says Criticizing is Easy

It's easy to be a critic, says Peter Orszag, budget director. He says he's not expecting a budget from Senate republicans and that Representative Paul Ryan crafted an unimpressive budget, complete with tax breaks for the wealthiest and corporations.

Q Thanks, Peter. I was wondering if you could respond to one of the criticisms that some of the Republicans are putting forth -- forward about your budget, which is that -- you know, they're comparing the situation that President Obama sees himself with the situation that Bill Clinton inherited. And they say, well, when Clinton came into office he made a bunch of tough choices, he raised taxes, and he used that to defray the deficit and build confidence in the markets; whereas Obama makes a bunch of tough choices but uses it to expand the role of government in things like energy and health care. Can you talk about that?

DIRECTOR ORSZAG: Sure. Let me first start with I think it's easy to lob criticisms, but part of governing needs -- or part of the policy process needs to involve putting forward alternatives. I haven't seen on the Senate side an alternative budget and my understanding is there won't be one. So it's kind of -- it seems off to be criticizing without putting forward an alternative.

The alternative that has been put forward by Representative Ryan in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal a few weeks ago embodies $3 trillion in tax cuts, including for very high-income individuals and for corporations. It involves -- and let's look at this from a fiscal perspective -- it involves setting up privatization under Social Security and having the federal government bear all the downside risk there. So if that system had been in place over the past few years, the federal government would have incurred massive amounts of liabilities to make individual accounts whole for the stock market declines that have occurred. And it involves an approach to health care in which you're given a check for 80 percent of the cost of health care, which then declines over time, and told to go off and just sort of fend for yourself.

So in terms of an alternative vision, I think -- at least it's my impression, that that is the only thing that's been out there. And I think the flaws in it are pretty clear. And with regards directly to your question, I'd also note that, you know, you had said that in 1993 Bill Clinton proposed tax increases. Well, people are saying we're proposing tax increases now.

We are, in terms of health care, approaching this in a somewhat different way than was the case in the early 1990s. But I don't think it's accurate to say, just pursuant to what we were just discussing with regard to the deficit-neutral health reserve fund, it's not accurate to say it's a massive expansion of government. And in fact, as I noted, it -- the health reform effort will be deficit-neutral.

And then the final point I would make is the point that the President made last night and has made on "60 Minutes" and before that, which is if you've asked corporate leaders over the past decade or two what the key to our long-term productivity is, they would -- they have answered consistently: a more efficient health care system; a more efficient energy base and reduced dependence on foreign oil; and improved education, along with a -- you know, raising national savings, which involves reducing the deficit.

So on our four key principles they're very much in line with what even corporate leaders have been saying for a long time is the key to our future prosperity. And I think that's precisely right. I've said this before. But I reject the notion that the key to future prosperity is the top marginal tax rate. See the whole Q&A here.

Republicans are Smarter Than Democrats Republicans Say

The republicans response to the stimulus, courtesy of Sen. Lisa Murkowski -- of Alaska!
In a soft voice, Murkowski says the stimulus is cause for serious concern. It's not Monopoly money.
Democrats settled on a random amount of money and then sought to fill the bucket. Republicans, on the other hand, targeted the root of the problem, she said.
Too late Murkowski! Bill passed. Now we have to make it work. It seems they'll sit on the sidelines and root for failure.
This, by the way, is the party sending out GOP Valentines.

More republican outrage from Wisconsin's Paul Ryan.