STRATEGIC MEMORANDUM
TO: Interested Parties
FROM: Brad Woodhouse, President, Correct The Record
DATE: July 30, 2015
SUBJECT: The GOP’s 50th Birthday Gift for Medicare: Massive Cuts or Total Repeal
The lasting success of Medicare is indisputable, so why do Republicans keep trying to dispute it?
This week marks the program’s 50th year of providing seniors with access to health care no matter their income or condition, prolonging the lives and savings of millions. Despite Medicare’s vital contribution to the health security of the American people, it remains under constant assault by the GOP. For five decades, Medicare has proven the dire predictions of its conservative opponents false: that it was socialism, that it would bankrupt the country, that it simply wouldn’t work. The most recent attack—that the passage of the Affordable Care Act would hobble Medicare—is just as wrong as the rest. In fact, the Affordable Care Act enhanced Medicare’s benefits for seniors and extended its solvency by more than a decade.
To those who say that Medicare isn’t under threat from conservative politicians, just listen to what leading Republican candidates for president are saying on the campaign trail. Jeb Bush would “phase out” Medicare. Scott Walker says cutting “entitlement programs” like Medicare and Social Security is “something that has to be done.” Marco Rubio claimed Medicare and Social Security had “weakened us as a people,” as ridiculous and backwards as that sounds. Rick Perry derided Medicare as unconstitutional and a “Ponzi scheme.” And Ben Carson—don’t laugh, he’ll be on the main GOP debate stage next week—has said that he would flat-out eliminate Medicare and Medicaid altogether.
While Medicare is celebrating its 50th successful year, virtually all of the potential nominees of the Republican Party, in one way or another, are in favor of slashing benefits for seniors and ending Medicare as we know it. That’s nothing to celebrate.
The GOP’s 50th birthday gift for medicare?
massive cuts or total repeal.
Jeb Bush
Jeb Bush on Medicare: “We need to figure out a way to phase out this program.” “Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush said Wednesday that we ought to phase out Medicare, the federal program that provides health insurance to Americans once they’re 65. ‘We need to make sure we fulfill the commitment to people that have already received the benefits, that are receiving the benefits,’ Bush said. ‘But we need to figure out a way to phase out this program for others and move to a new system that allows them to have something, because they’re not going to have anything.’” [Huffington Post, 7/23/15]
Jeb Bush: Medicare is an “entitlement” and “an actuarially unsound healthcare system.” “During a town hall meeting here Thursday afternoon, Jeb Bush was put on the defensive about his comments Wednesday night about ‘phasing out’ Medicare by an elderly woman who said she was worried about losing benefits she’s spent years paying for. ‘We’re not going to have adequate coverage for our children or our grandchildren without Medicare. I paid into that for years and years just like all these other seniors here and now you want to take it away?’ said the woman, who did not identify herself and left before the town hall concluded. ‘Why are you always attacking the seniors?’ ‘Well, I’m not,’ Bush responded. ‘Here’s what I said: I said we’re going to have to reform our entitlement system. We have to.’ ‘It’s not an entitlement,’ the woman shot back. ‘I earned that.’ ‘It’s an actuarially unsound healthcare system,’ said Bush, who said something must be done before the system burdens future generations with $50 billion of debt.” [Politico, 7/23/15]
Scott Walker
Scott Walker said that cutting “entitlement programs” like Medicare and Social Security is “something that has to be done.” “The governor said entitlement programs, such as Medicare and Social Security, are expanding the federal budget deficit. Cutting entitlements won’t hurt the economy, he said. ‘I don’t think that has a negative impact on the economy,’ he said. ‘Politically, it may be a challenge for some folks in this town, but it’s something that has to be done.’” [Bloomberg, 2/23/15]
Marco Rubio
Marco Rubio supported turning Medicare into a voucher system. “Speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, the Florida Republican said he supports gradually raising the Social Security retirement age, which now sits at 67, for future beneficiaries, and embraced Rep. Paul Ryan’s push to transition Medicare into a ‘premium-support’ plan, where seniors would be given a voucher to buy insurance on the private market. ‘I propose we transition to a premium-support system, which would give seniors a generous but fixed amount of money with which to purchase health insurance from either Medicare or a private provider,’ Mr. Rubio said. ‘The choice would be theirs to make.’” [Washington Times, 5/13/14]
Marco Rubio claimed that Medicare and Social Security had “weakened us as a people.” “In another sign that Medicare and Social Security will continue to be major issues in political campaigning and ongoing deficit reduction talks, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio has drawn flak this week from Democrats and retirement experts for his comments that such programs have ‘weakened us as a people.’ Democrats called Rubio ‘out of touch’ and ‘beholden to the extremist Tea Party’ for his comments in a speech Tuesday night at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Library in California.” [Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 8/25/11]
Marco Rubio voted in favor of $430 billion in cuts to Medicare. In March 2015, Rubio voted for the Senate’s FY 2016 budget resolution, which, according to Bloomberg, “avoided a plan to partially privatize Medicare that the U.S. House of Representatives embraced in its budget [and] instead call[ed] for $430 billion in spending cuts without explaining where they would be made.” The Senate adopted the budget resolution by a vote of 52 to 46. [Senate Vote 135, 3/27/15; Bloomberg, 3/27/15; S. Con. Res. 11, 4/7/15]
Ben Carson
Ben Carson said he would eliminate Medicare. “Dr. Carson also advocates an alternative to the Affordable Care Act. Most people could pay most of their medical bills through health savings accounts, he said in his office. He would eliminate Medicaid and Medicare, and for the poor, government would make the contributions to their health accounts.” [New York Times, 3/20/13]
Ted Cruz
Ted Cruz supported increasing the Medicare retirement age and transitioning it to a “premium support” voucher system. “Q: How would you put Medicare on stronger financial ground and protect today’s seniors and future retirees from the burden of rising health costs? A: We must save Medicare by gradually increasing the eligibility age and by moving to a premium support system that expands choices for seniors, opens up innovation, and utilizes market forces to rein in healthcare costs.” [AARP Senate Voter Guide, 8/24/12]
Rand Paul
Rand Paul introduced legislation “that would end traditional Medicare.” “A group of Senate Republicans has introduced legislation that would end traditional Medicare and sign seniors up for the same private healthcare plans received by members of Congress. The ‘Congressional Health Care for Seniors Act’ would allow seniors to choose from the array of plans currently offered to the four million federal employees and their dependents in the Federal Employee Health Benefit program, starting in 2014. It would also gradually increase the eligibility age for Medicare from 65 to 70 over a 20-year period. The bill was introduced Thursday by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). South Carolina Sens. Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint are co-sponsors, along with Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah).” [The Hill, 3/15/12]
Rand Paul supported raising the Medicare retirement age to 70. “In addition to letting Medicare seniors join the same excellent health care plan enjoyed by Members of Congress and federal employees, Dr. Paul proposes raising the Medicare retirement age from 65 to 70, very gradually, over a generation.” [FreedomWorks, 3/15/12]
Chris Christie
Chris Christie called for an increase in the Medicare retirement age. “The New Jersey governor, in a speech at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College, called for means testing Social Security, raising the retirement age for Social Security to 69 and gradually raising the eligibility age for Medicare to 67 by the year 2040.” [WMUR Manchester, 4/14/15]
Rick Perry
Rick Perry suggested that Medicare was unconstitutional and a “Ponzi scheme.” “Perry, who referred to the justices as ‘nine oligarchs in robes,’ said he was not convinced that Social Security and Medicare were constitutional. ‘I don’t think our Founding Fathers, when they were putting the term ‘general welfare’ in there, were thinking about a federally operated program of pensions nor a federally operated program of healthcare,’ he said in a book interview with Newsweek last fall. ‘Whether it’s Social Security, whether it’s Medicaid, whether it’s Medicare … they’re bankrupt. They’re a Ponzi scheme. I challenge anybody to stand up and defend the Social Security program that we have today.’” [Los Angeles Times, 8/23/11]
Rick Perry supported Paul Ryan’s Fiscal Year 2012 budget proposal. “Leaders of the Republican Governors Association sent a letter today to Representative Paul Ryan, Chairman of the House Budget Committee, supporting his budget proposal and calling for Medicaid block grants. The letter was signed by RGA Chairman Rick Perry, Vice Chairman Bob McDonnell, Policy Chairman Haley Barbour and Policy Vice Chairman Chris Christie.” [Press Release – Republican Governor’s Association, 5/8/11]
- The Ryan budget sought to privatize Medicare. “On balance, we conclude that the idea that the Paul Ryan budget proposal would ‘privatize Medicare’ is Mostly True.” [PolitiFact, 5/25/11]
- The Ryan Budget would partially voucherize Medicare. “While the Congressional Budget Office has followed Ryan’s lead in calling the subsidies ‘premium supports’ rather than ‘vouchers,’ Berry said the definition still applies. ‘The Ryan plan takes some functions the government currently provides and transfers these to private sector insurance companies, providing a government subsidy to pay for the private sector services,’ he said. ‘Ryan is clear about this — he thinks the private sector will do a better job in these activities as opposed to the ‘monopoly’ government agency. This is a traditional argument in favor of this kind of privatization.’” [PolitiFact, 5/25/11]
Bobby Jindal
Bobby Jindal presented a health care plan that proposed turning Medicare into a voucher system. “Declaring that the GOP needs to be ‘the party of solutions,’ Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) offered his own health care plan to replace Obamacare at a breakfast for reporters held by The Christian Science Monitor Wednesday. […] Incentives for ‘health savings accounts’ would be beefed up to allow such accounts to pay for insurance premiums. Medicare – healthcare for seniors – would turn into a ‘premium support’ system. In other words, seniors would get vouchers to choose their own plans. […] These ideas are similar to ones proposed by Representative Ryan Tuesday in his Republican budget plan. They would significantly change Medicare and Medicaid, but, experts say, also make them more cost-effective at a time when the national debt is about to balloon because of the costs of caring for retiring baby boomers.” [Christian Science Monitor, 4/2/14]