Matt Rourke / AP
Paul Ryan wants to overhaul Medicare, but according to RNC Chair Reince Priebus, it's President Obama who has the "blood on his hands."
Priebus appeared on Meet the Press this Sunday to talk about Mitt Romney's newly selected running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan. Ryan had just joined the ticket the day before, but already his presence was drawing attention back to substantive policy issues like Medicare.
“This president stole $700 billion from Medicare to fund Obamacare,” Priebus told moderator David Gregory. “If any person has blood on their hands in regard to Medicare, it’s Barack Obama.”
Romney used the same $700 billion figure against the president in his speech naming Ryan as his running mate, vowing to “preserve and protect Medicare and Social Security” for future generations.
But as the architect of the Republican budget, Ryan has made Medicare a signature issue in his crusade to reduce the deficit. The Ryan budget would effectively end Medicare as we know it, replacing it with vouchers for private health insurance.
“He’s going to protect Medicare for seniors, he’s going to protect Medicare for future generations,” said Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, who also appeared on Meet the Press.
Though Romney has endorsed the Ryan plan, it remains an open question whether he will adopt Ryan's proposed Medicare overhaul. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll from last April found that 53% of respondents were satisfied with the current Medicare structure or thought it needed only minor modifications, compared to the 44% who felt a complete overhaul was necessary.
The Obama campaign wasted no time in pouncing on the self-proclaimed “America’s Comeback Team” Romney/Ryan ticket, releasing a video attacking the new vice presidential pick and his proposed budget plan on the very day his candidacy was announced.
“It hurts seniors. It hurts middle-class families. It hurts students,” the ad charges.
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One thing about adding Ryan to the ticket is at least now Romney has a position. He now has someone to speak for him We know what Ryany is all about. He's a tea party favorite. Thats all anyone needs to know.
To make is viable, both Romney and The President will make adjustments to medicare. How those adjustments are made is the crux of the problem
It seems the "Publicans" always use words like conserve, protect, preserve, et al. while dismantling, watering down or destroying the very thing they say they will save...you know, like the 'rights' of the American people..Can we go back to doing what benefits the majority of Americans, rather than the 'select' few?...Grow the middle class and the tax base grows..Publicans were traitorous Jews who actually paid the occupying Romans for the right to collect Taxes in a certain area/district..Now with Citizen's United(Corporations being elevated to citizen status..lol), we have new rePUBLICANS, paying for the right to rule certain areas/STATES and determine the use of OUR taxes..Vouchers are only the tip of the 'iceberg'...Dangerous ground where Romney and Ryan stand! VOTE in your OWN best interests!Obama Ogain for me.
Liberals most not have children and if they do they don't give a damn about them
What is so hard to understand medicare will be bankrupt in 12 years if nothing is done about it
and what is Obama plan to fix it other then steal 700 billion from it
Nice grammar it good
It is my understanding that health care costs overall will come down with the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), thus benefiting all ages of people, including Medicare recipients. It's all those people in the hospital emergency rooms without insurance who get free medical care that is driving costs up. The doctors and hospitals have to recover the costs somewhere, so they pass it on to those of us who are responsible and have insurance. Don't Republicans understand that? Doesn't your state require you to have liability insurance on your car? Don't you see some kind of parallel here? I would by far rather see the Affordable Care Act stay in place, than see "The Ryan Plan" replace it. Heaven help us if it does.
Oh, there's lots of Defense fat to trim...and of course the swollen debt came from you Republicans in the first place. How come you weren't worried about the children when starting two unfunded wars, or huge tax cuts for the rich?
PS it was $500 in billion that was excised from Administrative costs in Medicare, not $700 billion. That was the stimulus, of which half was actually tax cuts for you Tea Party types (and the rest of the 95%).
Medicare Advantage, not Medicare, was defunded by 500 billion, not 700 billion. If Repubs. are talking, they're lying. What is truly sad and telling is the media folk including Maddow, Hayes, Perry who let the GOP lie. Corporate political media now has a 10% approval rating. They're going for 5%. Gobama!
Ryan and Romney wants to cut Social security and medicare so soon we will have the poor houses coming back where your grandparents or parents will have poor health and very little taking care of unless they move in with they're kids.
Stop right there, you dirty sack of sh#@ Priebus!!. President Obama is doing his best to guarantee that all Americans has health insurance, although you republicans and Tea Party fanatics have been doing nothing but putting obstacles on his path. You call that having "blood in his hands" because you want to distract the attention of the American populace from the real bloody crime: Rooney's business with the Central American death squads. I, for one, don't want to be associated in any way, shape or form to someone like Mitt Romney that had business relations with genocide killers no better that the Nazi Germans.
Bingo. Just vote.
Nothing upsets me more than to hear Republicans say Obama hasn't done anything to solve the problems of this country during his first term in office. Well, it isn't that he hasn't tried! He can't pass legislation into law without both houses of Congress voting in favor, and it is the Republican House that has stopped EVERYTHING every time---not Obama. So, it just isn't correct to say Obama hasn't done anything. Fortunately, he got a few things done while he still had a Democratic House, i.e, Affordable Care Act, etc. And, by the way, I'm driving an American made car for the first time in 31 years, and it ROCKS! Thank God, for the American auto industry and the American jobs it provides---millions of 'em. Republicans would have been happy to kiss that industry goodbye.
I agree...and they also pretend Obama had control of the Senate in the first two years, not even close to true (yeah, I'm talking to YOU, Lieberman! *grin*) We desperately need everyone to vote...not be suppressed, or depressed...VOTE this time. As if your life depends on it....for President and for Congress.
Good ole' Reince Priebus!
Making as much sense as a Soup Sandwich...
I would say Reince Preibus could screw up a wet dream, but I think that's how he got here, his daddy did....
Bet I could have 'blood on my hands' -- if I had the chance to PIMP-SLAP ol' Doughface.... ah, to dream...............................
Dvaid Gregory needs to take lessons on how to challenge liars such as the RNC chair. Chuck Todd learned how, finally.
Where is the media-liar-o-meter? Where is the intense outrage for the defaming of President Obama? Last week that was all we heard regarding the contention that a DEM SuperPac had defamed Romney in an ad by former steelworker Jerry Stotic (sp?)????? The hypocrisy of the Media and the GOP are amazing.