Could this one issue change the way entitlements are approached forever? If Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are successful on selling their wholesale changes to future but not current Medicare, it at least makes the case that the American people are ready for an incremental march toward entitlement reform. Paul Ryan was at the world’s largest retirement community to sell the plan:
Ryan on Saturday told a mostly older audience in a large Florida retirement community that Republicans will protect those in or near retirement from Medicare cuts if Mitt Romney wins the White House.
Ryan pointed to his 78-year-old mother who joined him. He says he isn’t going to hurt his mother’s financial security and wouldn’t hurt others, either. He says he saw first-hand Medicare’s benefits as a child when his grandmother, with Alzheimer’s, moved in with his family.
However, the 42-year-old congressman says the program needs to be overhauled during his generation so his children will be able to count on it, too.
Barack Obama’s cuts to Medicare have provided a rare opening for Republicans to defend the plan and argue for future changes. It seems like the upper ground has been taken by the GOP. In other news, Joe Biden released the following video response to Ryan: