Should ‘transforming’ Medicare into a voucher system be a 2012 campaign issue?

It's a key feature of the Ryan budget.

Should Republicans commit themselves to this proposal?

Should ‘transforming’ Medicare into a voucher system be a 2012 campaign issue?

Should ‘transforming’ Medicare into a voucher system be a 2012 campaign issue? Oh, dear Lord, yes!

Chappy said:

Should ‘transforming’ Medicare into a voucher system be a 2012 campaign issue? Oh, dear Lord, yes!

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Ryan's plan to alter the Medicare pay structure for future retirees (those currently 55 and younger) should absolutely be a campaign issue. As should be President's plan to begin cutting benefits for seniors now.

Both sides agree that Medicare expenditures must be reduced. Ryan's plan argues that we should put future retirees in charge of deciding where and what to cut by allowing them to allocate their Medicare dollars as they see fit. Obama's plan argues that we need a government commission to come up with a one-size-fits-all plan for what services to cut, and impose that on all seniors starting today. I would definitely make this distinction a 2012 campaign issue. Republicans hold the advantage here, economists from the center-left to center-right have been recommending premium support for decades. Some version has since been endorsed by everyone from President Clinton's 1999 Medicare commission, chaired by Democrat John Breaux, to Bob Dole and Tom Daschle in 2009. In comparison, Obama's call to impose an American version of the Orwellian British N.I.C.E. is uniquely unpopular and partisan.


Republicans should absolutely make the differences between Ryan's plan and Obama's a central tenet of the 2012 election.

im allllllll for it

Republicans passed it in the House - now the dye is cast.