Medicare

Who said that? Dems and GOP display dizzying shift on Medicare rhetoric

by Julian Pecquet and Jamie Klatell - 05/30/11 7:18 PM ET

Just a little over a year ago, Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) took to the House floor to warn America of the perils facing seniors if Democrats’ healthcare reform bill wasn’t stopped.

“Can you go home and tell your senior citizens that these cuts in Medicare will not limit their access to doctors or further weaken the program instead of strengthening it? No, you cannot,” the then-minority leader said last March.

Fast-forward 13 months, and Boehner — now the Speaker of the House — is singing a different tune.

{mosads}Tasked with defending Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) proposal to replace Medicare with subsidies to buy private insurance, Boehner told ABC News that the blueprint “transforms Medicare into a plan that’s very similar to the president’s own healthcare bill.”

If Boehner can be accused of shifting his rhetoric, so too can some Democrats.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius echoed GOP complaints about the Obama healthcare law when she said Americans would “die sooner” under the Ryan plan.

Of course, political opportunism is nothing new in Washington. Nor is the occasional policy flip-flop.

But the brazenness with which lawmakers are changing their rhetoric to woo seniors has amazed even longtime Washington hands, who can’t recall such a rapid — and complete — role-reversal.

On the following pages, The Hill has collected a series of examples of what each side said about the Democrats’ healthcare reform plan and the Republicans’ Medicare reform plan.

Click through to see the evolution of the talking points in the healthcare debate.

THEN & NOW:

The effects of reform

THEN

alt Obama, March 3, 2010

“This reform is the right thing to do for our seniors. It makes Medicare stronger and more solvent, extending its life by almost a decade. And it’s the right thing to do for our future. It will reduce our deficit by more than $100 billion over the next decade, and more than $1 trillion in the decade after that. So this isn’t radical reform. But it is major reform. This legislation will not fix everything that ails our health care system. But it moves us decisively in the right direction. This is what change looks like.”

Boehner, March 3, 2010

“Can you go home and tell your senior citizens that these cuts in Medicare will not limit their access to doctors or further weaken the program instead of strengthening it? No, you cannot.”

NOW

“[The ryan plan is] a vision that says America can’t afford to keep the promise we’ve made to care for our seniors. It says that 10 years from now, if you’re a 65-year-old who’s eligible for Medicare, you should have to pay nearly $6,400 more than you would today. It says instead of guaranteed health care, you will get a voucher. And if that voucher isn’t worth enough to buy the insurance that’s available in the open marketplace, well, tough luck — you’re on your own. Put simply, it ends Medicare as we know it.”

Boehner, April 25, 2001

The Ryan plan “transforms Medicare into a plan that’s very similar to the president’s own healthcare bill. It covers all the same things that would be covered today and it transforms the program so it’s there [for future generations].”

THEN & NOW:

On rationing

THEN

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), May 12, 2010

“Some have believed the reason he didn’t want to send Dr. alt up during the health care debate is because it would confirm the obvious, which was the direction in which we were headed and which Senate Republicans said repeatedly during the debate on health care was the direction we were headed … which was massive rationing.”

NOW

Dr. Donald Berwick, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, May 20, 2011

“There are two ways. One is to cut. Anybody can do that. You can cut a budget and take things away from people. And this [Ryan] plan proposed by the Republicans does so quite effectively. Beneficiaries lose a lot of security, a lot of financial support and will be in deeper and deeper trouble if that were to go through.”

THEN & NOW:

Electoral consequences

THEN

alt Then-RNC Chairman Michael Steele, Nov. 4, 2009

“In a state that overwhelmingly voted in favor of President Obama, this stunning defeat of Corzine sends a clear message to Democrats across the country. Americans have grown sick and tired of big government and reckless spending, and this vote is a sound rejection of the far-left policies that are hurting our nation.”

Then-White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, Nov. 4, 2009

“It’s hard to pick national trends out of local elections.”

NOW

DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, May 24, 2011:

“Tonight’s [special election] result has far-reaching consequences beyond New York. It demonstrates that Republicans and Independent voters, along with Democrats, will reject extreme policies like ending Medicare that even Newt Gingrich called radical. With this election in the rear-view mirror, it is my hope that Republicans will accept the message being sent by voters.”

Boehner, May 25, 2011

“Special elections are just that. They’re special.”

THEN & NOW:

Life or death (part 1)

THEN

alt HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Aug. 16, 2009

“I think it’s really horrific that some opponents of the health reform bill have used painful personal moments to scare people about what is in the bill. nothing could be further from the truth that there’s somehow a death panel. if anything seniors should welcome the fact that doctors would have a payment provided to sit down with family members if they choose and have a discussion.”

NOW

Sebelius, May 5, 2011

“If you run out of the government voucher and then you run out of your own money, you’re left to scrape together charity care, go without care, die sooner. There really aren’t a lot of options.”

THEN & NOW:

Life or death (part 2)

THEN

alt Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), Dec. 1, 2009

“I have a message for you: you’re going to die soon … When you restrict the ability of the primary care givers int his country to do what is best for their senior patients, what you are doing is limiting their life expectancy.”

NOW

Coburn, May 26, 2011

“The facts are the following, the politicians want to use medicare as a tactic to scare people into not doing what we as a nation are ultimately going to do anyway. we will have to fix medicare. and we can fix it in a way that assures every senior who absolutely needs the help of medicare and is dependent on medicare that they will have that healthcare. and anybody who says anything other than that, they either care a whole lot more about themselves and their political career or they’re absolutely dishonest.”

THEN & NOW:

“Granny”

THEN

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Aug. 12, 2009

NOW

The Agenda Project TV ad, May 17, 2011

THEN & NOW:

Scare tactics

THEN

alt Obama, Aug. 12, 2009

“Every time we come close to passing health insurance reform, the special interests fight back with everything they’ve got. They use their influence. They use their political allies to scare and mislead the American people. They start running ads. This is what they always do. We can’t let them do it again. Not this time. Not now.”

NOW

Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), May 20, 2011

“While Democrats do nothing to save Medicare from collapse, they have tried to scare seniors by mischaracterizing real solutions to strengthen and save the program and using those efforts as a political weapon.”

THEN & NOW:

Asking for civility

THEN

{mosads}Then-candidate Blake Farenthold (R-Texas), March 16, 2010

“The whole ‘ObamaCare’ debacle has shaken Americans’ respect for Congress. The cynical back room deals to gain support from wavering legislators are appalling. The procedural trickery now being considered to move this bill forward is dishonorable and a disgrace to the principles upon which our government was founded.”

Then-candidate Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), March 24, 2010

“More and more debt piled on our children and grandchildren. Also, the feds dumped more people onto [state] Medicaid. Still, there will be 23 million people without health care insurance when this is over. … Signing this big, fat bill and putting it on the backs of our children is wrong.”

Obama, Jan. 28, 2010

“But we shouldn’t sort of assume that the other side is either heartless or doesn’t care about sick people or is some socialist/communist who’s trying to take over the health care system. … We start getting into these caricatures. They’re so damaging.”

NOW

DCCC “Republican Plan to End Medicare” talking points, March 2011

“House Republicans voted to end Medicare but protect tax breaks for millionaires, billionaires, and Big Oil. This reckless privatization scheme is an insult to every hardworking American who has paid into Medicare.”

Letter from Reps. Kinzinger and Farenthold, May 10, 2011

“It is high time both parties come together to have a commonsense conversation to prevent the collapse of institutions on which millions of seniors rely on and save Medicare for our children and grandchildren.”

THEN & NOW:

“Grown up” solutions

THEN

alt Obama, Jan. 28, 2011

“I can report that Granny is safe. In fact, Grandma’s Medicare is stronger than ever.”

NOW

Cantor, May 23, 2011

“We have said all along, we have to address the problems. And, you know, the other side has just continued to evade any solution. Anytime you even discuss Medicare or any health care entitlement, it is difficult, no question. But we are in serious times, and that is why we believe you have to lead.”

THEN & NOW: