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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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 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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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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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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Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney's Epic Health Care Journey: How He Flip-Flopped On Mandates

Benjy Sarlin | May 12, 2011, 7:21AM

Former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA)

Seeking to defuse his biggest vulnerability in the GOP primaries, Mitt Romney is set to deliver a speech outlining his position on health care on Thursday. The issue has been his glass jaw ever since 2009, when Democrats launched a successful push to pass health care reform modeled on a Massachusetts law widely considered Romney's signature achievement as governor.

The element of both laws that is most despised by those on the right is a requirement that people purchase insurance, leaving Romney in the awkward position of fiercely defending his own law's use of a mandate while labeling it an unconstitutional government takeover on a national level.

"Governor Romney has made it very clear over the last many years, including during the 2008 presidential cycle, that he opposes a federally imposed individual mandate," a Romney spox told NRO this week.

While it's true that Romney did not call for a federal mandate in the 2008 election, he has in fact supported two sweeping health care proposals in Congress that included an individual mandate, the most recent in 2009. In addition, he's repeatedly boasted that Massachusetts mandate would -- and should -- eventually be adopted on a widespread scale.

TPM SLIDESHOW: Meet The 2012 GOPers: Ex Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA)

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Pakistan

Feinstein Wants Answers About What Pakistani Officials Knew About OBL

Susan Crabtree | May 10, 2011, 4:00PM

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) isn't relying on U.S. intelligence officials alone to find out whether the Pakistani government was helping harbor Osama bin Laden.

Feinstein, who chairs the Senate intelligence committee, told TPM she has "her own people looking into it" and will hold closed-door classified hearings on the increasingly frayed relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan soon.

Despite her deep concerns about what the Pakistani government knew about bin Laden's compound before a U.S. assault team raided it and killed the notorious al Qaeda leader, Feinstein tempered remarks Monday in which she questioned continuing to send billions of dollars in humanitarian and military aid to the country and said the relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan "makes less and less sense."

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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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Barack Obama

Panacea? Republicans Rejected Obama's Latest Health Care Entreaty Weeks Ago

Brian Beutler | March 1, 2011, 9:43AM

President Barack Obama

President Obama offered the governors of all states a grand bargain on Monday: Set up working, affordable, universal health care systems in your states in the next three years and we'll unburden you from the requirements of the health care law.

Republicans saw this coming, though, and rejected it as grounds for detente weeks ago.

"That doesn't give the states the option to opt out," said Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), at a press conference last month. "That just says they have to live under Obamacare, and they can then run it themselves."

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Net Neutrality

Key Senators Block GOP Efforts To Upend Net Neutrality

Brian Beutler | February 23, 2011, 1:58PM

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA)

Four Democratic senators are warning key leaders not to use the threat of a government shutdown to block the FCC from implementing net neutrality rules.

In a letter they're circulating to colleagues, Sens. John Kerry (D-MA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Al Franken (D-MN), and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) say the Senate should not lend support to House GOP efforts to block the rules.

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CIA/DNI/Intelligence

CIA Official: Obama Was Briefed On Egypt Instability Late Last Year

Susan Crabtree | February 3, 2011, 4:50PM

Associate Deputy Director of the CIA Stephanie O'Sullivan

The U.S. intelligence community warned President Obama about instability in Egypt late last year, according to a CIA official.

Stephanie O'Sullivan, the President's nominee for principal deputy director of national intelligence who currently serves as associate deputy director of the CIA, told the Senate intelligence committee Thursday that the agency briefed Obama. She did not indicate how specific the information they provided was.

"We warned of instability but not exactly where it would come from [and in what form]," she said. "That happened at the end of last year."

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Lindsey Graham

GOP Sens Admit: Goal Of Changing Health Care Law Is To Kill It

Brian Beutler | February 1, 2011, 3:14PM

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)

We've reached a point in the health care fight where Republicans aren't even pretending that their efforts to tweak the bill aren't also intended to destroy it.

Case in point: A new GOP plan to allow states to opt out of the key provisions of the law is intended to undermine it and cause it to fail, its supporters admit.

"If you took half the states out of the individual mandate requirement, this bill falls, requiring us to draft something new, and quite frankly that is the goal," said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) at a press conference Tuesday afternoon. "To find a way to get the Congress to redo this bill.... We want this bill to come to an end."

Points for honesty.

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Ron Wyden

Wyden Eyes Legislation To Limit Warrantless Cell Phone Tracking

Ruth Schneider | January 28, 2011, 4:19PM

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR)

Anyone who carries a cell phone can easily be tracked by law enforcement -- and the courts don't require them to get a warrant to do it. Cell phones ping cell towers creating a way of triangulating location -- information mobile providers like AT&T and Verizon collect and distribute to law enforcement upon request.

Sen. Ron. Wyden, D-Ore., said Friday that it's time to rethink the laws that allow law enforcement easy access to that data.

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Health Care

Scott Brown: Even If I Alter The Health Care Law, I Will Repeal It

Evan McMorris-Santoro | January 25, 2011, 2:50PM

Senator Scott Brown (R-MA)

Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) has found himself on the opposite side of his tea party supporters on more than one occasion since his unlikely ascension to the seat vacated by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D). On financial reform, the jobs bill, Don't Ask, Don't Tell repeal and several other laws, Brown has turned his back on the ultra-partisan right -- and drawn their fire because of it.

But the if the House bill to repeal the health care reform law ever comes up for a vote in the Senate, Brown says he's ready to march in lockstep with the frustrated conservatives that propelled him to office last January.

Brown told TPM today that he'd vote to repeal health care reform if he gets the chance, even if the legislation he's co-sponsored with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) to significantly alter the reform package finds success first.

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Ron Wyden

Wyden Cancer Bout Complicates Dems' Lame-Duck Agenda

Brian Beutler | December 16, 2010, 6:44PM

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR)

The exceedingly good news is that Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) is expected to make a full recovery from prostate cancer, for which he will undergo surgery early next week. For Democrats, though, that could create real logistical problems, if they hope to round out a still-crowded lame-duck session in the next several days.

"[I]t now appears that I will be missing votes tomorrow and possibly next week while I prepare and undergo this procedure," Wyden said in a statement. "I expect to be back to work full-time when the Senate reconvenes in January."

That wouldn't matter if Democrats were trying to pass legislation with broad support. But just about everything left on their docket is expected to face broad GOP opposition, and pass by paper-thin margins, if at all.

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Scott Brown

Silver Bullet: Can Scott Brown And Ron Wyden Save Health Care Reform?

Brian Beutler | November 22, 2010, 4:17PM

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR)

A new bipartisan proposal that would allow innovative states to basically drop out of the health care law could help ease conservative opposition to the plan, even as the number of Republicans who have joined various lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the individual mandate has swelled in recent months.

New legislation, introduced last week by Sens. Scott Brown (R-MA) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) would make a simple tweak to the law: It would allow the states to implement their own health care systems, and thus be exempt from most of the requirements of the Affordable Care Act. The catch: Those programs would have to cover, with decent insurance, at least as many people as the health care law does, but without adding to the deficit.

The law technically already provides this exception -- but as currently written, states can only begin opting out in 2017. This new Wyden/Brown proposal would kick that date forward to 2014.

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Ron Wyden

NRSC Says Wyden Has Lost Touch With Voters From The Evergreen State -- But He's From Oregon

Brian Beutler | September 3, 2010, 3:19PM

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR)

If the NRSC wants to paint Oregon Senator Ron Wyden as an out of touch D.C. Democrat, they're gonna have to try harder.

"Despite his claims that he is 'like Oregon,' it's clear from Ron Wyden's record that he has simply lost touch with his constituents during his 14 years in Washington," reads a recent NRSC press release. "Senator Wyden is a career politician who has championed a reckless economic agenda that has driven our national debt to a staggering $13 trillion and failed to create jobs as the Evergreen State's unemployment has skyrocketed to 10.6 percent."

But it's hard to blame Wyden for abandoning the voters of the Evergreen State, because it's a totally different state from the one he represents in the Senate. Washington is the Evergreen State. Wyden enjoys the distinction of representing the Beaver State, Orgeon.

(H/T: Eugene Weekly)

Public Option

Casey And Wyden Support Public Option Through Reconciliation

Rachel Slajda | March 2, 2010, 1:43PM

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D-PA)

Sens. Bob Casey (D-PA) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) both announced their support today for a public option to be passed via reconciliation.

Wyden, in a statement, said, "I've long believed we need a more competitive insurance market. If the House version of the public option came up for a vote in reconciliation I would vote yes."

His office did not immediately say whether he plans to sign the public option letter written by Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) to send to Senate leadership. That letter now has 24 signatories.

Last week, Wyden sent out a press release saying he was holding off on signing the letter until after the White House summit.

"He intends to first join the President in a good faith effort to see if a bipartisan solution is possible," the release said.

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Ben Nelson

Carper: With Blessing From Leadership, We Will File A Public Option Amendment

Brian Beutler | December 1, 2009, 4:25PM

Sen. Thomas Carper (D-DE)

On the Saturday before Thanksgiving recess, the Senate agreed to debate a health care bill, which includes a public option with a state opt-out clause, and Democratic leaders were in early discussions with moderates--who have made their objections to the opt-out perfectly clear--on an alternative proposed by Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE). With the Senate back in session, it seems those negotiations are continuing.

Carper will soon be meeting with conservative Democrats to discuss the progress of the alternative. "[Senator Carper] got something set for tomorrow night," Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) told me. "we'll know more then, hopefully."

Carper demurred on the exact date and time of the meeting, but indicated that discussions continue apace, and that he will move ahead with an amendment once leadership gives him the high sign. "I'm not sure that there's a meeting tomorrow--I lose track of these things," Carper said in response to a question from TPMDC. "We'll certainly file an amendment--if encouraged by our leadership."

"I think--at the end--the reason why we're going through this effort is to try to find a way to get to 60," Carper said.

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Health Care

With Reid's Support Wyden And Baucus To Cosponsor 'Free Choice' Amendment

Brian Beutler | November 20, 2009, 2:33PM

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT)

If this amendment passes, it could significantly change--and most experts would say improve--the Senate health care reform bill.

As part of an agreement hashed out at the end of the Finance Committee mark up process, Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) will join forces to amend the Senate health care bill with Wyden's "Free Choice Act." If it can attract 60 votes, it would give low- and middle-class Americans with employer-provided insurance the option of purchasing subsidized insurance in the exchanges.

Baucus and Wyden have the support of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).

"Senator Wyden has worked tirelessly to reform our health system, and I am pleased to have his support for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act," Senator Reid said. "I will support the inclusion of his proposal for workers whose employer coverage is unaffordable but are not able to access the exchange."

Sixty is a tough climb. It would have likely been impossible under the original terms of the Wyden amendment, which would have opened the exchanges up to everybody. This is a scaled down version of that, and it will be a hard amendment for Democrats to vote against.

Health Care

Wyden Calls Baucus Bill Exchanges 'Unacceptable'

Evan McMorris-Santoro | October 15, 2009, 12:42PM

Speaking with ABC's Rick Klein just now on the Baucus health care reform bill he voted for Tuesday, Sen Ron Wyden (D-OR) took aim at conservatives and said there is "more do do" before the bill is complete.

Wyden said he voted in favor of the bill in the Senate Finance Committee because he "felt it was important to move the issue forward." He said Democrats had to push the bill past "far right" senators who "want to prevent any health care reform" from passing this year.

Wyden also jabbed White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs for saying so often the president wants a final bill with choice and competition. Wyden says the exchanges found in the Baucus bill will exclude 90% of people from participating within seven years. He favors exchanges for all like the ones available to members of Congress, who can switch among providers and plans when they wish. In the interview with Klein, Wyden called the Baucus exchanges "unacceptable" and said the White House claim that exchanges do provide choice and competition is "not going to pass the smell test."

A spokesperson told TPMDC later Wyden will vote against the Baucus bill if it includes the exchanges as written.

Late Update: Wyden appeared on ABCNews' TopLine webcast (video not available yet).

Health Care

LIVEBLOG: Senate Finance Committee Votes On Health Care Reform Bill

Brian Beutler | October 13, 2009, 10:01AM

Check in here for continuous updates until the vote, which may not come until the afternoon.

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Health Care

Senate Finance Committee To Vote On Landmark Health Care Legislation Today

Brian Beutler | October 13, 2009, 8:51AM

Later this morning, after tense months of negotiating and arguing, the Senate Finance Committee will vote on its health care reform bill. The package, which is expected to pass on a party-line or nearly party-line vote, will be a precursor to a Senate bill, which will be compiled in the coming days, and reach the floor later this month.

Of the five Congressional committees with jurisdiction over the nation's sprawling health care system, Finance is the last to act, though it began preliminary hearings on the issue about one year ago.

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Health Care

Taking Their Time: Finance Committee May Delay Vote As It Awaits CBO Analysis

Brian Beutler | October 5, 2009, 12:16PM

The Senate Finance Committee was supposed to convene for a vote on its controversial health care bill tomorrow. Now, that's looking doubtful.

Early in the amendment process, the panel agreed not to hold a vote until a preliminary analysis on the legislation's cost-saving potential was available, and it appears as if the CBO will not complete its work until later in the week. That would touch off yet another delay--one that's likely to frustrate Democrats and liberal activists, who've grown impatient over the glacial pace of reform efforts.

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Barack Obama

Wyden: Obama Gave the Cause of Health Care Reform a "Big Boost Last Night"

Brian Beutler | September 10, 2009, 4:34PM

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) tells me he thinks President Obama gave the cause of health reform "a big boost last night, but though he supports Obama's proposal, he does have a few concerns.

"I think it was very powerful and even more importantly very persuasive," Wyden told me. "Health care is such a complicated issue, and intensely personal and the way the President outlined it, it really served as a trampoline--a jump--to the next part of the debate which is on the Senate Finance Committee on which I serve."

On the specifics of the President's plan, Wyden laid out a small handful of issues he'd like to see improved. Specifically, and foremost, Wyden says, "the area that i would like to be bolder in is in this area of creating a market through choice and competition."

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