Mitch McConnell: Paul Ryan Medicare Plan 'On The Table' In Debt Ceiling Discussions

WASHINGTON -- Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on Sunday that the Medicare reform plan authored by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan would be "on the table" with respect to negotiations over raising the debt ceiling.

"We are going to discuss what ought to be done," McConnell said during an appearance on Meet The Press. "I can assure you that to get my vote to raise the debt ceiling, for whatever that is worth… Medicare will be a part of it."

Using the Ryan plan as an option for debt ceiling negotiations is a new marker for GOP leaders, who have long insisted legislation should include strict spending caps. McConnell's remarks suggest not only that GOP leadership is looking for cover for the party's Medicare voucher proposal -- forcing Democrats to either support elements of the plan or risk default -- but also that the two parties may be moving further apart as that deadline nears.

Indeed, elsewhere on Sunday, presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty reiterated his skepticism that reaching the debt ceiling would cause much economic disruption at all.

“I don't think we should raise the debt ceiling,” Pawlenty told ABC's This Week. “And if the Congress moves in that direction, and the president, they'd better get something really good for it and it better be permanent and it better be structural, like a balanced budget amendment and like permanent caps and limits on spending that are specific, not just aspirational.”

"[T]here are some serious voices challenging" the idea that hitting the debt ceiling would be catastrophic, he added. "And the answer is nobody really knows because we've not been at this point before."

Democrats, for their part, continued to pound away at the Ryan plan on Sunday, arguing that it was a non-starter as part of both the budget proposal and the debt ceiling discussions.

Sen. Chuck Schumer's office flagged the McConnell quote well before it aired on television in D.C. (the New York Democrat visited Meet The Press after McConnell). And the Senator himself released a statement shortly thereafter.

“Leader McConnell continues to embrace his party’s plan to end Medicare as we know it, and again refused to take it off the table," said Schumer. "A deal on deficit reduction is only possible if Republicans remove Paul Ryan’s plan from consideration so we can return our focus to ways to achieve savings that extend the life of Medicare in its current form.”

Comments

[Diane Farmer]

08:34 PM on 06/08/2011

Instead of hurting the American people, why not cut the salary of the congress and their budget. After all why should they deserve so much money or a retirement after little service to the American people. One should also consider cutting the number of congressmen in congress, we do not need so many, since they rarely consider the most of the they are there to server.

[wannabefree]

04:15 PM on 06/02/2011

How come that repulicans are suddenly worried about medicare and its future. They want to protect rich without tax hike for them. Their only solution is through cuts for elderly, who cant help themselves. Their income is not even enough to support their necessities. Their pension is not enough as big corporations are slowly moving away to avoid their commitments to pension plans.

I really think that Republicans have already promised private insurance companies on this medicare plans, and wants to implement it to satisy the promise to rich. They are not worried about the bankruptcy of medicare, but they want to satisfy the lobbyists of big insurance corporations.

[Helloise]

07:57 AM on 06/01/2011

Who's table? The American people have already thrown it in the trash compacter.

[lib2dbone]

03:11 AM on 06/01/2011

Mitch McConnell. Rodeo Queen.

[capn moose]

11:42 PM on 05/31/2011

If the GOP insists on Medicare being on the table in budget talks -- and it should be -- then the Democrats should put thre single-payer health insurance plan on the table and keep it there. Study after study shows that we can save about 30 percent of health insurance costs by eliminating all the competition and have, Ontario basically has, once single government-run insurance plan that covers everybody. The savings are clear: No commissions, almost no paperwork, no advertising, no marketing, no promotions, no fights over coverage. True, massive layoffs among insurance employees and those in hospitals and doctor's office who used to handle the tons of paperwork. But many workers could be retrained as health-care staff. But, will the GOP ever allow this cost-saving plan???

[zelduh]

02:13 PM on 06/01/2011

Can't happen. The insurance lobby gets far too much money to protect private insurers - and they write the laws for Congress.

[Insightful]

07:22 PM on 05/31/2011

As far as Mitch McConnell and the rest of his cohorts in congress are concerned we need to end all those tax breaks for high brackets, stop their generous medical plans, huge pensions, chop off all that free traveling and salaries that rise every year before anyone of them have the gall to even touch Medicare. They need to learn how to live with some discipline before they have any say in demanding an end to Medicare, Social Security and any other social programs that are helpful to "plain folks". I notice that they aren't calling for an end to these ongoing wars that are being fought by the "plain folks" at great cost to keep our war industry going. You should all be fired!! .

[rainkitty]

06:46 PM on 05/31/2011

REPUBLICAN PATH TO PLUTOCRACY
"The GOP agenda can be boiled down to 2 words: CHEAP LABOR… and Paul Ryan’s budget plan is about ensuring the Plutocrats finally eliminate the last vestige of middle class “uppityness” – our Social Safety net."
http://republicandirtytricks.com/republican-path-to-plutocracy/

[pollclaire]

09:47 PM on 05/31/2011

This plan is hardly new. The same privatization agenda was tried in South America in the 1970s, by the same Milton Friedman economists-for-hire that the RNC retains today. If you want 20% unemployment, 400% inflation, and a one-party state run by the police, speculators and corporate interests, I'd say this plan is a great idea.

[Roger]

06:10 PM on 05/31/2011

Just love watching the Republican "young guns" do nothing but shoot themselves in the a**.

[anne1stoftwo]

04:42 PM on 05/31/2011

Make medicare part of it, as long as you make everything else part of it as well. Like benefits that you all get regardless of time spent in washington. You pensions? Your free health care premiums? Big oil paying taxes? Large companies paying taxes? The rich paying at the same rate I pay? Anyone who sends one job out of this country needs to be taxed at double the rate of anyone else. When you collect from the others that have so much, then come knocking on my door for more. But not until then

[Json]

04:21 PM on 05/31/2011

When did the GOP get so bad at politicking?? I guess they are still hungover from the 2010 elections to notice how far they have drifted from the center of america.
Not only has the ryan plan has already been defeated, but it was wildly unpopular.
I'm guessing that they are just staking out this position as a bargaining tool, but they are angering the very people that will decide the 2012 election, and there is ~0% chance that the ryan plan is going anywhere!

[erikmartin]

10:48 PM on 06/02/2011

If it were possible to save the country and be politically successful at the same time, someone would have done it by now. Every once in a while someone tries to slow down the mushrooming entitlements, because it's the right thing to do, but of course that gives the other party an easy win by scaring old people, which they always take advantage of.

[Json]

12:59 AM on 06/03/2011

"Slowing down entitlements" is just a cover for destroying medicare.
If you really don't believe that medicare should exist, then argue that point. But don't pretend this is about making small adjustments to the program to reduce costs. Turning it into what is basically a voucher program destroys the essence of medicare is; a guaranteed social safety net.

[randyman99]

03:25 PM on 05/31/2011

It's too bad we can't elect some more Congressmen and Congresswomen who understand economics. They are like three year olds playing with matches out in a barn full of hay.

[treadway123]

02:40 PM on 05/31/2011

"Get something really good for it"! BLACKMAIL! The debt ceiling should NOT be used for Blackmail/intimidation methods by the GOP! I would be for letting it just NOT pass, an if this country goes down hill, let the GOP take the blame they deserve! Period, end of story! Make the party or Break the Party, we don't allow America to be BLACKMAILED/Taken Hostage by anyone!

[randyman99]

03:29 PM on 05/31/2011

Good, but it would not be the end of the story. It would send the U.S. economy into a tailspin that we won't be able to recover from for twenty or thirty years. That's how long it would take to retire the T Bills that had to be sold at astronomically high interest rates because buyers lost confidence in our ability to make good on them. But Pawlenty can't see that, because we've never been there before. Well, duh.

[Daschenk]

12:38 PM on 05/31/2011

The reason Medicare gets more expensive is because medical costs have increased by so much.

It is time we consider what to do about Price manipulation by the Health insurance companies

[zetacplus]

02:11 PM on 05/31/2011

That's what Obama and his team are trying to do, cut costs. The republicans don't even attempt to hide that they can care less about costs. Why? Because they're in bed with the insurance lobbyists. They want high insurance costs because it helps their cause of abolishing Medicare and forcing everyone into private insurance plans. That would be catastrophic for our nation and the republicans are disgusting creatures for trying it.

[doublerainbow]

05:39 PM on 05/31/2011

EXACTLLY!

[Daschenk]

12:37 PM on 05/31/2011

So why did they first vote against reductions in Military spending and corporate tax holidays?

Remember, the reason that taxes exist, is to pay for war.

[EinChicago]

12:34 PM on 05/31/2011

I'm for medicare being on teh table.... provided defense spending and tax rates are also on the table.
The GoOPers have no credibility when they say that their pet pork barrels are off the table, but other items are not. It's all or nothing. and we cna't have nothing at this stage.

Clinton balanced the budget by slashing defense spending 50% and increasing taxes. The result was 8 years of astronomical growth.

[treadway123]

02:42 PM on 05/31/2011

Thats the problem! They want it there way, only their way or the HWY! NO negotiation, they will control what is in it, what is not! Their like Bully's on the Playground! I'll beat ya up an hurt you any way I can, if ya don't give me what I want, an right now! Thats the GOP!