No, Republicans Aren't Abandoning Medicare Reform

On Wednesday night, the Washington Post sent out a “Breaking News” alert under the headline “Medicare dropped from GOP budget proposal.” An hour later, the Post sent out a correction:

“[Note: The headline on an earlier alert incorrectly described the GOP position in deficit talks.]

Senior Republicans conceded Wednesday that a deal is unlikely on a plan to overhaul Medicare and offered to open budget talks by focusing on areas where both parties can agree, such as cutting farm subsidies.

On the eve of debt-reduction talks, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (Va.) said Republicans remain convinced that reining in federal retirement programs is vital, but recognize they may need to look elsewhere to achieve consensus.

asdfaDespite the Post’s correction, a number of other media outlets have misreported the House Republicans’ position on Medicare reform. “House Republicans signaled Thursday that they were backing away from the centerpiece of their budget plan — a proposal to overhaul Medicare— in a decision that underscored both the difficulties and political perils of addressing the nation’s long-term fiscal problems,” wrote Jackie Calmes and Carl Hulse at the New York Times. “While top Republicans insisted that they remained committed to the Medicare initiative, which had become the target of intense attacks by Democrats and liberal groups in recent weeks, the lawmaker who would have to turn the proposal into legislation said he had no plans to do so any time soon.”

Ramesh Ponnuru writes that all the talk about Republican retreat is “puzzling”

[I]n all my time listening and debating, I never heard any of the advocates of tackling Medicare now say that they wanted to move legislation enacting these reforms in this Congress. I never heard anyone say that Republicans should insist on enactment of Medicare reform as the price for raising the debt ceiling. I never heard Ryan—the foremost advocate of putting the Republicans on record for Medicare reform—demand any of these things.
As far as I can tell, the plan all along was to propose a budget that showed how Medicare reform would contribute to, well, a path to prosperity, defend that reform, and try to get more supporters of reform elected in 2012. I don’t see how sticking to the plan can be seen as a retreat. But I also haven’t seen any Republicans make this point in this week’s news stories.

NYT…..

Yuval Levin elaborates on the House GOP negotiating strategy:

Since it’s perfectly clear that the White House and Senate Democrats consider the Medicare reform in Ryan’s budget a complete non-starter, it wouldn’t make much sense to make that reform the Republican chip in negotiations over the debt limit and the like. There are other parts of the budget, including portions of the Obamacare repeal, discretionary cuts, the Medicaid reforms, tax reforms, and other things, that could serve as far more effective bargaining tools until a better president and Senate are elected.

How reporters at leading mainstream newspapers failed to understand this is indeed puzzling. Ryan himself has never suggested

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/266637/no-retreating-health-care-ramesh-ponnuru

No, Republicans Aren’t Abandoning Medicare Reform

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