It’s obviously quite disappointing that Congressman Paul Ryan has teamed up with Senator Ron Wyden, a Democratic from Oregon, to put forth a significantly watered down version of his Medicare reform plan.
Ben Domenech of the Heartland Institute and Peter Suderman of Reason have good summaries of why the new plan is a less-than-exciting development.
I’m not happy, but I’m not surprised. Having read a lot of the commentary flowing back and forth today, I have two initial observations.
1. Blame Romney and Gingrich. Republican House members are very nervous about getting demagogued during next year’s election because of their courageous vote this year for the Ryan budget. And since the two frontrunners for the GOP nomination are very squishy on the issue (and likely to become even worse once one of them gets the nomination), this leaves House GOPers in a risky position.
2. Ryan-Wyden may be “Obamacare for Seniors,” but that’s still better than the current system, which is sort of a “UK-single-payer-for-seniors” plan. In other words, Ryan-Wyden isn’t a good plan, but it’s not as bad as the current system. It would be a small step in the right direction. But it’s hard to get excited about a small step when lawmakers earlier this year voted for a big step.
But here’s the problem. America needs leadership to make the changes that are necessary to save the U.S. from a Greek-style fiscal crisis. Given the weak set of candidates running for President, I can understand why Ryan and other congressional Republicans are trimming their sails. But that doesn’t change the fact that America needs something bolder.
