Senate Rejects Ryan Budget, Medicare Overhaul

From Politico:

With five Republicans joining Democrats in opposition, the Senate easily rejected a House-passed budget plan Wednesday calling for deep cuts in domestic appropriations and major restructuring of Medicare, the government-backed healthcare program for the elderly.

The 57-40 roll call proved more for show than substance but still stung for GOP leaders, coming less than 24 hours after the same Medicare issue figured prominently in the upset of a Republican candidate in a special House election for upstate New York.

In a tell-tale sign of trouble ahead, there were significantly more defections among GOP moderates than in a similar partisan show vote in March testing support then for an earlier House Republican budget initiative focused on discretionary spending cuts. [Pols emphasis]

Colorado Republican Rep. Cory Gardner was defiant regarding the Ryan budget in an earlier Politico story today, but this afternoon’s Senate vote is telling in how moderates rejected the Ryan budget across-the-board. There’s Gardner’s strategic approach to Medicare and the “Ryan budget,” and then there’s the strategy being employed by Senate moderates — we can tell you which direction we’d be more comfortable with as an incumbent member of Congress (hint: it ain’t Gardner’s position).

22 Community Comments, Facebook Comments

  1. Middle of the Road says:

    Rand Paul, who doesn’t think the cuts go deep enough and four Republicans who see the writing on the wall.

    But the big newcomers this time were all moderates: Maine’s two Republicans, Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski-all of whom had been loyal in March.

    • BlueCat says:

      This is pretty cute coming from a member of the Official Fear Mongering Party. The one that only yesterday was trying to scare seniors by telling them Obama wanted to cut their medicare benefits and the GOP would never let that happen.  The one that wants us to fear crazed immigrants, all Muslims, a president with a funny name and dark complexion, socialism, etc.

      Anyway, Ryan thinks he can turn things around by complaining about how Dems are trying to scare seniors by telling voters that the Ryan plan calls for an end to medicare. Never mind that it does.  He calls this sinister Dem tactic “mediscare”, Get it?

      He gamely puts it out there over and over.  Who knows, maybe he got it from Luntz.  He thinks it’s unfair that Dems are scaring seniors when he specifically promises not to screw today’s seniors.  He swears he only wants to screw those who have been paying in all their lives and are now in their earlier 50s and younger. Those mean Dems aren’t playing fair.

      In any case backpedaling Rs don’t seem to think it’s going to do the trick. Don’t think “mediscare” is ever going to get the general usage they managed  for “Obamacare”.  And that’s so yesterday’s news thanks to the storm they’ve stirred up with what must now be called simply the Republican Budget Plan, not just the Ryan Budget Plan, since outside of a handful in the Senate, they all voted for it.  And I bet those mean Dems will use the unfair scare tactic of reminding voters of that every chance they get. Those fearmongers! Quoting R plans verbatim and pointing out how Rs voted.  

  2. droll says:

    That being said, bwahahahaha! I wish the vote had happened next year, but I’m still a bit gleeful over here.

  3. marindenver says:

    Teapers dream candidate when he ran and now he’s turned out to be kinda moderate.  By Repub standards anyway.

  4. ArapaGOP says:

    Short term scare tactics and New England RINOs do not a panic make.

  5. DaftPunk says:

    From the New York Times on the Hochul win and forcing the senators o go on record.

    But Democrats, hopeful that the Medicare fight is a path to a political turnabout, are clinging to the recent developments like koalas to eucalyptus trees

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