Barack Obama

Medicare, Social Security Reports Fuel Fight Over GOP Privatization Plan

Brian Beutler | April 23, 2012, 2:59PM

The Medicare and Social Security trustees presented mixed news for the country's two largest and most popular entitlement programs in annual reports released Monday. The analyses suggest that the 2008 economic crisis, and its lingering effects on the economy, have modestly weakened the programs' finances -- but that President Obama's health care law, if implemented as intended and matched with advancements in health care delivery, will extend the life of Medicare as expected.

The conclusions fuel an ongoing fight between the parties over the propriety of the programs, and the manner in which the federal government should act to provide sustainable retirement security for American workers. In particular, it puts the parties' vastly different views about Medicare back at the center of the 2012 election -- and will force Republicans to continue to defend their far-reaching plan to privatize that program.

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Barney Frank

Barney Frank Unloads On The 'Great Scam' Of Paul Ryan

Sahil Kapur | April 12, 2012, 6:08AM

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) unleashed a stinging attack on House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan in an interview with TPM, describing him as an ideologically driven extremist who doesn't deserve his reputation within the political establishment as a genuine fiscal hawk.

Labeling the House-passed GOP budget a "great scam," Frank cited its military spending hikes from current law levels as evidence that Ryan's primary goal isn't deficit reduction. He also cited Ryan's refusal to specify which tax loopholes he'll close as evidence of trickery.

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Medicare

GOP Failing To Find Dem Cover For Privatizing Medicare

Sahil Kapur | April 3, 2012, 6:10AM

Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY)

Republicans have a message on their plan to privatize Medicare: It's bipartisan. Democrats have a counter-message: Hell no, it's not.

As the GOP works to portray Rep. Paul Ryan's blueprint for Medicare as bipartisan, Democrats are working equally hard to keep their fingerprints off it. Dem operatives see the proposal -- which in 10 years would begin phasing out the existing program and replacing it with a subsidized exchange where seniors can shop for plans -- as a huge opportunity in the elections. House Republicans passed the plan last week without a single Democratic vote.

Now, Republicans are pushing to box in Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, as a former supporter of the "premium support" concept.

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Paul Ryan

Cue The Ads: GOP Votes To Privatize Medicare In Election Year

Sahil Kapur | March 29, 2012, 4:44PM

Brave or politically suicidal?

For the second year in a row, Republicans voted Thursday to effectively dismantle Medicare -- this time, just over seven months before a presidential election. And Democrats are salivating at the political opportunity, eager to hang the vote around the neck of the party's presidential nominee and its candidates in tough congressional races.

"A year ago, nobody was talking about Democrats having a shot at the House. Now we're talking about it," a Democratic leadership aide told TPM after the vote, a party-line 228-191 that didn't win a single Dem.

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Medicare

Dems To GOP: No Cover From Us On Medicare Privatization Plan

Brian Beutler | March 19, 2012, 1:04PM

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)

When House Republicans unveil their 2012 budget on Tuesday, they are expected to include a Medicare privatization plan endorsed by one Democrat -- Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR). That, Republicans will claim, proves their controversial overhaul proposal has bipartisan support.

Leading Democrats say they won't let the GOP get away with it.

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Medicare

New GOP Medicare Privatization Plan: Obamacare For Seniors Only?

Brian Beutler | March 15, 2012, 12:45PM

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)

You're a Republican senator. How do you sell a plan to privatize Medicare?

One way is to fashion the massive overhaul as an extension of the private system members of Congress enjoy -- the Federal Employee Health Benefits Plan -- and then trumpet the merits of that system over existing Medicare.

"We have to convince [seniors] this is something better," said Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), flanked by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Rand Paul (R-KY), authors of a new Medicare privatization plan, at a Capitol press conference on Thursday. "If we thought Medicare was better, we would be on it as senators."

DeMint is 60 years old. Graham is 56. Paul is 49. Medicare eligibility age is 65.

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Mitt Romney

The Many Misleading Claims In Mitt's Monday Medicare Memo

Brian Beutler | March 12, 2012, 12:59PM

As part of an effort to reverse the public's perception of the parties' positions on Medicare, Mitt Romney's campaign is appropriating a common Democratic attack and using it against President Obama. To wit, it's Obama, not Romney and the GOP, who plans to "end Medicare as we know it."

There are multiple, and conflicting, facets to this claim, all of which are intended to obscure one fundamental fact -- the GOP broadly supports a plan that, over years, will phase out traditional Medicare, and replace it with a subsidized private (or private-public) insurance system for seniors; President Obama supports, and has signed into law, efforts to make the existing single-payer Medicare plan more cost-effective in order to avoid "ending Medicare as we know it."

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Medicare

How The Affordable Care Act Could Quash The GOP's Dream Of Medicare Privatization

Sahil Kapur | March 12, 2012, 5:40AM

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden

What if "Obamacare" not only helped save Medicare from fiscal doom, but also quashed the GOP's longstanding goal of privatizing the program? It's too early to know what will ultimately happen, but new evidence suggests that nightmare scenario for conservatives is within the realm of possibility.

In a development with potentially profound implications -- both for Medicare itself and for the broader ideological fight between the two parties over the role of government -- researchers writing in the New England Journal of Medicine believe that the growth in per patient Medicare costs has slowed, contra earlier projections that spending would soar at an unsustainable rate. More importantly, the researchers believe this trend will hold over time, thanks largely to the Affordable Care Act's sweeping cost-control policies.

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Claire McCaskill

McCaskill: Obamacare Is Like Ryancare For Non-Seniors

Sahil Kapur | March 8, 2012, 6:02AM

United States Senator Claire McCaskill (Democrat of Missouri) holds a press conference in the U.S. Capitol

Grilled about her support for the Affordable Care Act, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) told a home state radio interviewer that the law's core structure is "exactly" like the House GOP Medicare privatization plan that conservatives support and liberals detest.

"The irony of this situation is that these are private insurance companies people will shop to buy their insurance. It's not the government," she told KMOX of St. Louis on Wednesday. "It's exactly what Paul Ryan wants to do for Medicare."

"It's subsidized by the government -- premium subsidies -- which is exactly, this is the irony," continued McCaskill, who faces a tough reelection battle this fall. "You think what Paul Ryan wants to do for seniors, you think it's terrific. But when we want to provide private health insurance for people who don't have insurance with subsidies from the government, you think it's terrible."

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Medicare

White House Doubts Congress Can Pass Deficit Bill Before The Election

Brian Beutler | March 6, 2012, 6:00AM

A senior administration official says the White House could support balanced deficit reduction legislation if Congress passes it before the end of the year -- but sees no evidence that Republicans have moved off their now higher tax revenue position, and thus doubt policymakers will be able to reach an agreement that President Obama can sign.

Here's the background.

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Independent Payment Advisory Board

Why Republicans Are Fighting To Repeal Obama's Medicare Cost-Cutting Board

Sahil Kapur | February 28, 2012, 5:29AM

House Republicans are poised to advance legislation this week to repeal President Obama's Medicare cost-cutting board, a provision enacted in the health care reform law. The Energy & Commerce Committee is set to mark it up this Wednesday, and the repeal bill already has enough cosponsors to pass the House. It's not expected to survive the Senate or Obama's veto pen, but the debate over this provision cuts to the heart of the battle over how to save Medicare in the long run.

Some background: The Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) is set to take effect in 2014, and would comprise 15 President-appointed and Senate-confirmed experts charged with holding down Medicare per-beneficiary spending by restricting reimbursements to providers. It is forbidden from cutting payments to beneficiaries. Congress can override the panel is by passing an alternate way to save the same amount of money, or with a three-fifths Senate majority. The health care industry has been outspoken in its hatred for IPAB. Republicans are united in their effort to kill it, and even some House Dems are on that page.

The question now is: Why is the party that's hell-bent on reining in Medicare pushing to repeal this powerful tool for doing just that? Part of it is to score political points by slicing off a key piece of the Affordable Care Act. But more importantly, Republicans don't want to keep Medicare in its current form. Many of them don't think that's feasible. They want to transition it to a privatized model a la the Paul Ryan plan, where seniors get a fixed subsidy -- or "premium support" -- to buy their own insurance on a private exchange.

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Medicare Privatization

How Republicans Could Still Succeed At Privatizing Medicare

Sahil Kapur | February 20, 2012, 4:55AM

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)

Republicans may be backing off their famously toxic plan by Paul Ryan to privatize Medicare, but they've doubled down on the broader concept and are taking strategic steps to get there over time. Democrats currently have the upper hand in their battle to protect traditional Medicare for the future, but unless they thwart the GOP's drumbeat and build support for their alternate vision, it may not be for long.

There's little disagreement that Medicare is currently on an unsustainable trajectory, with costs spiraling out of control thanks in part to aging baby boomers. Democrats and Republicans both want to rein in Medicare spending, and the two sides increasingly agree that per-beneficiary outlays should be held down to per-capita GDP plus 1 percent, a substantial reduction from projections. But they strongly disagree on how to get there.

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Tom Coburn

The GOP's Tactful Pivot From Ryan Medicare Plan -- And Why It's Important

Sahil Kapur | February 17, 2012, 6:03AM

Republicans are continuing their gradual pivot away from the Paul Ryan Medicare plan they once voted for overwhelmingly -- another tacit admission that the blueprint is too radical to pass. But they haven't given up on the concept -- far from it. In fact, they're searching for more tactful ways to bring it to fruition.

The latest evidence came Thursday, when Republican Sens. Tom Coburn (OK) and Richard Burr (NC) rolled out a sweeping new plan that would transition Medicare to a subsidized private insurance system while giving seniors the option to remain in the traditional government-run program -- think "Obamacare" exchanges with a public option.

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Budget

Obama To Draw Contrast With GOP In Budget

Brian Beutler | February 13, 2012, 5:43AM

President Barack Obama

Though required by law, White House budgets are largely political documents that tend to become more and more political as reelection time gets closer and closer.

This year's will technically be no different -- but the long-term stakes will be much higher than they usually are and clarifying that fact for voters will be key to President Obama's appeal in 2012.

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Paul Ryan

Are Republicans About To Commit Medicare Suicide?

Brian Beutler | February 7, 2012, 5:40AM

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) speaks during a press conference on the debt ceiling in Washington, D.C. on August 1, 2011

It's shaping up to be spring 2011 redux. Just under a year ago, Republicans -- euphoric after a midterm election landslide, and overzealous in their interpretation of their mandate -- passed a budget that called for phasing out Medicare over the coming years and replacing it with a subsidized private insurance system for newly eligible seniors.

The backlash was ugly. But Republicans seem to have forgotten how poisonous that vote really was, and remains...because they're poised to do it again. This time they're signaling they'll move ahead, with a modified plan -- one that, though less radical, would still fundamentally remake and roll back one of the country's most popular and enduring safety net programs.

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Medicare

Ryan's Plan Still Ends Medicare Even If PolitiFact Rates That As A Lie

Brian Beutler | December 20, 2011, 11:26AM

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) speaks during a press conference on the debt ceiling in Washington, D.C. on August 1, 2011

Here's a long, sad story about how Democrats' basically true claim that House Republicans voted to end Medicare ended up "winning" PolitiFact's Lie of the Year award -- a development that will help the right and the GOP create their own reality as the future of the social safety net becomes a defining issue of the 2012 campaign.

Back in April, House Republicans passed a budget that included a plan to phase out Medicare over several years and build in its place a subsidized, private insurance marketplace for seniors.

Democrats called this a vote to "end Medicare."

You can quibble. It wasn't a vote to end Medicare -- BLAM! -- all at once. But under the GOP plan, within a couple decades, the current health retirement program for old people would be gone and in its place would be an entirely different one. It would just, by political design, have the same name: Medicare.

Ignoring policy in favor of process, and with an eye toward political balance, PolitiFact rated this basically true Democratic claim "Pants on Fire."

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Barack Obama

More Backlash For Wyden Than For Ryan On Controversial Medicare Plan

Brian Beutler | December 15, 2011, 3:35PM

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)

Sen. Ron Wyden wants to assure his colleagues he hasn't undermined them politically. In a head-turning move, Wyden announced Wednesday that he's teamed up with House GOP budget chair Paul Ryan on a policy framework to partially privatize Medicare -- a move that stunned his fellow Democrats.

Setting aside the policy -- which would in essence turn Medicare into ObamaCare with a robust public option -- the very existence of the plan has deep implications for the 2012 elections, most of them bad for his own party.

Speaking to reporters Thursday after an event with Ryan, Wyden said the political ramifications are overblown.

"Nobody ducks their past votes and their previous statements," Wyden said. "That's just a given."

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Medicare

The Ron Wyden, Paul Ryan Pile On Begins

Brian Beutler | December 15, 2011, 10:43AM

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) at the U.S. Capitol.

We'll have much more later today on the big news that Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) have teamed up on a plan to partially privatize Medicare.

But to give you a sense for just how poisonous Wyden's colleagues on the Hill find this alliance -- both on policy merits and on political grounds, here's a quote from a very senior Dem congressional aide.

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Medicare

The Bipartisan Political Alliance That Will Turn The Fight Over Medicare On Its Head

Brian Beutler and Benjy Sarlin | December 14, 2011, 9:08PM

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)

An unholy, unexpected political marriage between a Democratic senator and a House Republican firebrand will have implications beyond Capitol Hill -- and could conceivably alter both the political tenor of the 2012 elections and the long-term policy fight over the future of Medicare.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) is teaming up with Paul Ryan, the House's top budget guy and the author of the GOP's controversial budget which proposes phasing out traditional Medicare and replacing it with a private plan. The two announced via The Washington Post that they'll be teaming up on a different version of that Medicare plan -- one that closely mimics plans offered by leading GOP presidential candidates Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, and a proposal authored by former Sen. Pete Domenici and former Clinton budget director Alice Rivlin, which loomed large in the Super Committee's failed negotiations.

The move makes Wyden the first elected Democrat to endorse creating a premium-support system to compete with traditional fee-for-service Medicare, and for Ryan represents a de facto admission that his own plan was too radical to ever gain bipartisan support. That's bound to affect how congressional and presidential candidates approach the issue, which will feature prominently in next year's elections. But it raises a number of other questions, both about the merits of the policy and of the political calculus behind it.

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Nancy Pelosi

Nancy Pelosi Games Out The Long Fight Over Medicare And The Rest Of The Safety Net

Brian Beutler | December 7, 2011, 4:45AM

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi

Eight months is a long time in politics, but it will be eight months ago next week that House Republicans voted overwhelmingly for a budget that envisioned a massively scaled-down social safety net -- a smaller, privatized health care system for old people, to replace traditional Medicare; Medicaid financially constrained, and handed over to state governments; cuts to various other support programs that benefit the poor, the young, and the elderly.

That didn't sit well with voters. And in the months that followed, Republicans tried to contain the fallout by making federal deficits a central political issue while forcing Democrats to agree to real cuts to these programs -- all while refusing themselves to raise taxes, even on the very wealthiest Americans.

This too didn't go according to plan. The GOP upheld its vow not to raise taxes; Democrats insisted new tax revenue was a criterion for cutting benefits; and Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security avoided the scalpel.

At least for now.

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Medicare

GOP Filibuster Ends Tenure Of Health Care Cost Cutting Expert

Brian Beutler | November 23, 2011, 1:45PM

President Obama hasn't used his recess appointment power very often. But he didn't hesitate to install Donald Berwick as the administrator of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services without Senate confirmation over a year ago, to lead the implementation of the new health care law. Berwick's has, without a doubt, been Obama's most important recess appointment, and his most effective. But he will step down early next month -- a few weeks before his term expires -- because filibustering Republicans continue to deny him an up or down vote.

The GOP claims its opposition is rooted in Berwick's past praise of Britain's state-run National Health Service. But his powers as CMS administrator obviously stop well short of socializing the United States health care system. So what gives?

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Super Committee

Republican Acknowledges GOP Pushed Ryan Plan In Super Committee Negotiations

Brian Beutler | November 22, 2011, 12:34PM

Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX)

If you're having a hard time buying that one party was more reasonable than another in the Super Committee negotiations, read Republican co-chair Jeb Hensarling's obituary for the panel in the Wall Street Journal. Specifically, check out this part about the GOP's big ask:

Democrats on the committee made it clear that the new spending called for in the president's health law was off the table. Still, committee Republicans offered to negotiate a plan on the other two health-care entitlements--Medicare and Medicaid--based upon the reforms included in the budget the House passed earlier this year....

Republicans on the committee also offered to negotiate a plan based on the bipartisan "Protect Medicare Act" authored by Alice Rivlin, one of President Bill Clinton's budget directors, and Pete Domenici, a former Republican senator from New Mexico. Rivlin-Domenici offered financial support to seniors to purchase quality, affordable health coverage in Medicare-approved plans. These seniors would be able to choose from a list of Medicare-guaranteed coverage options, similar to the House budget's approach--except that Rivlin-Domenici would continue to include a traditional Medicare fee-for-service plan among the options.

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Jeb Hensarling

Hensarling To Dems: Want Higher Taxes? Agree To Partially Privatize Medicare

Brian Beutler | November 16, 2011, 3:34PM

Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX)

Shortly after catching heat from Democrats, Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) addressed reporters in the Cannon House Office Building to revise and extend controversial Tuesday comments, which threw the Super Committee's prospects into doubt. But he indicated that the two parties are stuck in a standoff -- one they don't really have time for. And Republicans won't budge, he insisted, unless Democrats take agree to far-reaching plan to change Medicare.

"Something has to be at the Congressional Budget Office by Monday," Hensarling said.

Hensarling hinted that his hard line on new taxes might not be so hard ... but only if Democrats are willing to fundamentally overhaul Medicare.

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Barack Obama

Obama's Plan Is The Opposite Of Paul Ryan's Plan -- For Good Reason

Brian Beutler | September 20, 2011, 6:05AM

President Obama's first term has been marked by a tendency to take the liberal policy consensus on any issue, move five clicks to the right, and begin negotiations having already conceded quite a bit to conservatives.

His new push to pass a $447 billion jobs plan, and reduce out year deficits in large measure by raising taxes on the rich marks a significant departure from the status quo ante. And it sets Obama up for a risky, but important and necessary fight with Republicans over the country's future.

Put it all together and his plan would juice the economy in the near-term, and pursue a vision for the country that's just about the opposite of the GOP's. In effect, it serves as a rebuke to House Republicans -- and particularly House Speaker John Boehner -- who walked away from an equally far-reaching plan that would have been much friendlier to conservative interests.

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Barack Obama

Obama Pushes Means Testing Of Medicare In Debt Talks

Susan Crabtree | July 15, 2011, 12:20PM

President Barack Obama delivers remarks on the ongoing debt ceiling debate in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington on July 5, 2011.

President Obama said his 2008 campaign message of hope still springs eternal when it comes to breaking the impasse in debt ceiling negotiations with Republicans in the next few days.

"I'm hopeful that over the next couple of days we will see this logjam broken," he said at a Friday press conference, his second in a week.

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Medicare

Obama Urges Dems To Accept Changes To Medicare, Social Security

Susan Crabtree | July 11, 2011, 1:05AM

President Obama said both sides have to be willing to sustain some political pain in order to reach a deal on cutting the nation's long-term debt, and he urged his own party to accept changes to entitlement programs in order to wrangle some targeted tax increases out of Republicans.

Recognizing that he has a lot of work still ahead of him to convince Democrats to agree to altering Medicare or Social Security, Obama tried to lay some ground work Monday at a press briefing.

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Paul Ryan

Rep. Ryan Tastes The Grapes Of Wrath

Susan Crabtree | July 8, 2011, 2:30PM

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), a leading advocate of shrinking entitlement spending and the architect of the plan to privatize Medicare, spent Wednesday evening sipping $350 wine with two like-minded conservative economists at the swanky Capitol Hill eatery Bistro Bis.

It was the same night reports started trickling out about President Obama pressing Congressional leaders to consider changes to Social Security and Medicare in exchange for GOP support for targeted tax increases.

[TPM SLIDESHOW: Hey Big Spenders: What Else Could Wealthy Candidates Buy With All That Campaign Cash?]

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Paul Ryan

Ryan On 'MediScare' Attacks: 'Here's The Deal On Our Medicare Plan: ObamaCare Ends Medicare As We Know It'

Brian Beutler | July 5, 2011, 1:06PM

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) just broke a land speed record for his pivot from decrying Democratic "Mediscare" attacks on the GOP budget to attacking Democrats for wanting to end "Medicare as we know it."

In an interview with WISN, a local ABC News Affiliate in Wisconsin, Ryan responded to the fact that his budget, endorsed by almost every member of the Republican party, is extremely unpopular.

"Whenever you lead and propose a solution to a complex problem, you're putting yourself out there to be distorted, to be demagogued to be lied about," Ryan said. "What's happening is the other party's chosen to try to scare senior citizens to try and get votes. Here's the deal on our Medicare plan: ObamaCare ends Medicare as we know it."

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Medicare

Florida Tea Party Leader: GOP Medicare Plan A 'Public Policy Nightmare'

Brian Beutler | June 20, 2011, 11:29AM

Tea Party protesters on Capitol Hill

South Florida Tea Party Chairman Everett Wilkinson thinks the GOP budget -- and in particular its call to phase out Medicare and replace it with a marketplace for private insurance -- is a total disaster. He's saying that Republicans, including members in his sphere of influence like Rep. Allen West (R-FL), should back away from it.

In an email to fellow Tea Partiers last week, obtained by The Palm Beach Post, Wilkinson called the GOP plan a "public policy nightmare" that could trigger "huge Democratic wins in 2012," and prompt Republicans to blame the Tea Party for their losses.

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60 Plus Association

Paul Ryan, 60 Plus Defend Medicare Phase Out Plan In New Ad (VIDEO)

Brian Beutler | June 17, 2011, 10:05AM

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)

The 60 Plus Association -- a well-moneyed group that advocates for conservative safety net policies -- is running a new ad, starring House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI), to defend the GOP plan to phase out Medicare and replace it with private insurance.

"The Democrats and Obama are destroying Medicare," said Jim Martin, chairman of the 60 Plus Association in a prepared statement, before pivoting unironically. "It's time to put an end to their 'mediscare' tactics."

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2012

Let The Games Begin! A Guide To Tonight's GOP Debate

Brian Beutler | June 13, 2011, 6:45AM

Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty

Not since the first head-to-CPU contest between Gary Kasparov and Deep Blue has the world waited so breathlessly for the kind of battle of the minds we're likely to witness Monday evening.

For the first time this primary season, seven of the top contenders for the GOP presidential nomination will field tough questions, pitch Republican voters, and take on each others' foibles and apostasies during an 8 pm ET, CNN/WMUR/New Hampshire Union Leader-sponsored debate in Manchester, New Hampshire.

On hand will be Herman Cain, Tim Pawlenty, Rick Santorum, and Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) -- all of whom participated in the first GOP debate last month. They'll be joined on stage by three big names in Republican politics: Newt Gingrich, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.

Like every primary debate since the advent of cable television, the forum will be marked by predictable talking points, unctuous spells of self-flattery, and reflexive attacks on the incumbent president.

But as the GOP field takes shape, it will also be one of the first opportunities for the contenders to stake out or clarify their positions on the issues defining this race. Here are the five key things to be on the look out for.

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Medicare

Poll: Large Majorities Of Elderly, Most Informed Oppose Medicare Privatization

Jon Terbush | June 6, 2011, 3:39PM

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)

In a potentially dire sign for Republicans looking ahead to 2012, a Pew poll released Monday finds that a strong majority of elderly Americans oppose the GOP's proposal to privatize Medicare.

In addition, the poll found that not only do Democrats oppose the proposed changes, but pluralities of both Republicans and independents do as well.

Overal 41% of Americans opposed turning Medicare into a voucher program where seniors would buy their own coverage in the private sector, while 36% supported such a plan, according to the poll. Opposition is heavily skewed toward older Americans, as might be expected, with people over 65 years-old lining up against the plan by a 51% to 25% split. Fifty-one percent of respondents in the 50-64 year-old bracket also opposed the plan, while 32% supported it.

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