President Barack Obama wasted no time in rejecting the only bipartisan entitlement reform plan alive in Washington today. “At the end of the day, this plan would end Medicare as we know it for millions of seniors,” White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said of the Medicare reform plan outlined by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.
Ryan has since responded to the White House:
I am grateful to have a partner in my friend Senator Wyden, as we work together to create space for bipartisan solutions to address our nation’s most pressing challenges. It is disappointing to find the President of the United States increasingly isolated from this growing bipartisan consensus on efforts to save and strengthen our critical health and retirement security programs. The President’s failure to offer credible solutions to the challenges facing Medicare is a disservice to seniors, a disservice to hardworking families, and a disservice to the next generation. A more glaring disappointment is the President’s failure to recognize a sincere effort by a Democrat and a Republican to come together and offer solutions, betraying his own rhetoric and his own commitment to those we have the privilege to serve. America deserves better.
