Paul Ryan: Newt Gingrich 'Inaccurate' On Medicare Plan

WASHINGTON — The architect of the House Republican plan for overhauling Medicare says presidential candidate Newt Gingrich's critical description of the proposal was deeply inaccurate and a gross mischaracterization.

Last week Gingrich called Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) Medicare proposal "right-wing social engineering."

“What you want to have is a system where people voluntarily migrate to better outcomes, better solutions, better options, not one where you suddenly impose it,” he said. “I am against Obamacare imposing radical change, and I would be against a conservative imposing radical change.”

Gingrich took his words back a few days later after he was criticized by conservatives.

"I made a mistake and I called Paul Ryan today, who's a very close personal friend -- and I said that," said the presidential candidate during an appearance on Fox News. "The fact is that I have supported what Ryan's trying to do on the budget … the budget vote is one that I am happy to say I would have voted for, I will defend, and I will answer any Democrat who attempts to distort what I said."

Gingrich also called Ryan to apologize.

Ryan played down the flap when asked about it on NBC's "Meet the Press" and played up his proposal. It essentially calls for a voucher system to help older people buy insurance in the future.

Many Democrats have rejected the proposal, and some Republicans have been wary of endorsing it.

Ryan says it's time to move beyond the Gingrich comments and focus on dealing with the nation's fiscal problems.

Comments

[The Colonel]

01:41 PM on 05/23/2011

Paul Ryan is the perfect desciple of Karl Rove. He not only practices, but live Rove's "Christian Family Values" motto: "if at first you don't succeed, lie, lie again." And as far as Newt is concerned, his recent quote says it all, "if you quote me, it's a lie". Hopefully, the Repugs will eventually figure out that Nazi Josef Goebbels was wrong and that if you keep telling the same lie over and over, it will not become the truth.

[Grunty1]

01:31 PM on 05/23/2011

Naturally, this is one of the few things that Newt is perfectly accurate

[jsgaetano]

01:24 PM on 05/23/2011

It's funny how desperate the Teabaggerate is to defend their far right social engineering project.

[ethiopia1a]

01:08 PM on 05/23/2011

Maybe the world did come to an end and I am in HELL and don''t know it! LOL!

[Ed C Atlanta]

01:07 PM on 05/23/2011

Sorry paulie, but if anyone is inaccurate about this sham of a plan, it is you and the minions that voted for it,,even money says that most of those that voted for it, never read it and just jumped on board,because the repubs lacked any other plan,to counter the dems,,

[Grunty1]

01:33 PM on 05/23/2011

I don't agree. I bet that most of the Rushpublicans knew exactly what is in this plan. It is their party dream bil, after all. What they were hoping, however, is that the people wouldn't be smart enough to read it before the vote.

[SolarArray]

12:36 PM on 05/23/2011

Paul, your magical solutions have been called, by your own party members, a P.O.S. Bring that to your town halls.
ANd don't forget to mention your health care benefits to your consituents while you're at it, ok?

[goofy2]

12:18 PM on 05/23/2011

Are you talking about Newt Gingrich, that paragon of political courage? Ryan's crowd has them all groveling and looking rediculous. Watch the reactions of even ultra-conservatives like Orin Hatch when they go after him for not towing the line.

[Jennifer Mead]

11:57 AM on 05/23/2011

The nation's fiscal problems? You mean the ones started under G.Bush Jr. where tax cuts were given and wars were started? Great expansion of government etc? Just roll back that damage and suddenly cash will appear.

[hmmmmm]

11:53 AM on 05/23/2011

So, what are we to make of the "most intelligent" Republican there is, not understanding the Ryan budget?

Sorry Paul, he was right the first time.

[imfedup]

11:46 AM on 05/23/2011

I would like to volunteer to write the Dem's ads for them for 2012. I'll do it for NOTHING. They need some help.

Here's one ad:

NEWT IS RIGHT.

Roll tape of Newt calling the Ryan plan "right wing social engineering."

The end.

[hmmmmm]

11:51 AM on 05/23/2011

oh, please include him saying "if you quote me, then you're lyinig" at the end.

[Grunty1]

01:34 PM on 05/23/2011

Play the original statement
Play the roll back.
Then play "if you quote me"

[imfedup]

11:40 AM on 05/23/2011

What I find amusing is the fact that Republicans lied about the ACA, saying it would make us pull the plug on Grandma, cost jobs, raise costs instead of cutting them, and when a small margin of people bought their B.S., they used the polls to justify repealing "Obamacare."

Now that the TRUTH about the Ryan plan has hit the streets, the polls are much more heavily weighted against it than they were against the ACA. But the Repubs would have us believe that they know best and the people have been duped.

The irony is thick.

[StrongEagle]

10:49 AM on 05/23/2011

The only way that Newt might have been 'inaccurate' when speaking of the Ryan budget is that he didn't go nearly far enough in calling a scam a scam.

[Kiffanik]

08:56 AM on 05/23/2011

Didn't Newt tell Rush Friday that he wasn't talking about Ryan's budget, he was talking about some other budget that we haven't heard about?

[imfedup]

11:42 AM on 05/23/2011

He said he never mentioned Ryan by name. Lame, lamer, lamest.

[dmsdzinr]

08:18 AM on 05/23/2011

Ryan believes in using the Rovian tactic of continually lying about what his plan does, in the hopes that the lies will become truth. Sorry Paulie, America ain't buying it. Americans DO NOT want your plan.

[mcvet]

07:59 AM on 05/23/2011

I love it when these Republilklans get in over their heads... The simple fact is that today ANY senior who wants to use Private Insurance can do so AND the cost of Medicare will be applied to that Insurance. The PROBLEM is that NO Private Insurance Company can provide the same coverage for anywhere NEAR that cost.. NOT EVEN CLOSE.

[Grunty1]

01:37 PM on 05/23/2011

You seem to be saying that they are doing this for the best interest of the people.
They aren't.