Debt Ceiling

GOP Demand Obama Protect Seniors From Default, Won't Name What To Cut Instead

Benjy Sarlin | July 14, 2011, 2:46PM

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX)

Republican lawmakers are pushing President Obama to put seniors, troops, and bondholders at the front of the line should Congress fail to raise the debt ceiling. The rest? Well, that's up to him.

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Health Care

The GOP Proposes 'Obamacare' For Seniors -- Just Don't Tell Democrats Or Republicans That

Brian Beutler | April 15, 2011, 9:38AM

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX)

If I told you that the chairman of the Republican senators' reelection committee wanted to phase out the existing Medicare system and slowly replace it with Obamacare, would you believe me? No major caveats, no clever tricks. Just a slow transition from Medicare as we know it to the same health care law Republicans have sued and attempted to repeal -- but for seniors only.

You probably wouldn't. But you'd be wrong.

The long-term Republican budget plan proposed by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) phases out Medicare as a guaranteed, universal, single-payer system and replaces it with a government-subsidized private insurance program. If that sounds familiar, it should.

"It's exactly like Obamacare," said NRSC chairman Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) in the Capitol Thursday. "It is. It's exactly like it. Which strikes me as bizarre that you're seeing so much pushback [from Democrats]."

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John Boehner

Confusion Over Budget Numbers A Factor In House Vote

Benjy Sarlin | April 14, 2011, 4:09PM

The last 24 hours saw an erosion of GOP support for Speaker John Boehner's spending deal, which required Democratic votes to pass on Thursday after 59 Republicans defected, thanks in no small part to confusion over just how much it cut.

The topline number heralded in the press after a deal was reached last week was $38.5 billion below current spending levels. But an analysis of CBO numbers by Politico's David Rogers on Wednesday, confirmed by TPM, showed the bill only reduced direct spending by about $350 million. The news rallied conservatives already skeptical of the deal, caused the National Review to reverse its endorsement of the deal, and sent Boehner scrambling to explain the bill's cuts to his base.

"It's fair to say it wasn't just constituents that were confused about all that was being published," Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-MI) told TPM after voting against the bill. "I hope we get better at that and better at really drilling down and making sure people are all comparing apples to apples rather than applies, cherries, bananas, and oranges."

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