Ryan Medicare plan may split GOP as Senators prepare to vote on it

The Washington Post: Fact Checker: Does Newt Gingrich Still Believe The GOP Medicare Plan Is 'Radical'?
After denouncing the House Republican budget plan for Medicare as "right-wing social engineering" and "radical change" on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday, former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) found himself on the defensive and his nascent presidential bid in shambles. In the Fox appearance and in other venues, Gingrich never really took back the words he had said about the Ryan plan. Even as he appeared to apologize, he bolstered the idea that he had significant problems with Ryan's plan (Kessler, 5/19).

Fox News: Gingrich Aide Skewers Media In Epic Retort
Setting a new bar for campaign retorts, Newt Gingrich's spokesman Rick Tyler offered a blindingly colorful defense of his boss Wednesday, capping a week during which he was battered by the right over his criticism of Republican Rep. Paul Ryan's Medicare plan. Gingrich has already conceded he made a "mistake" in choosing to describe the House Budget Committee chairman's proposal as "right-wing social engineering" in an interview over the weekend. But Tyler, pressed for reaction by The Huffington Post to the media coverage Gingrich endured, offered what looked to be an excerpt from an epic poem starring the ex-House speaker, trudging through a world of Cyclopean Sunday show hosts and editorial writers (Berger, 5/19).

National Journal: (Video) Has The Ryan Plan Become The Third Rail Of The GOP
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is not pushing Republican senators to vote for the budget plan, created by Rep. Paul Ryan and passed by the House, that dramatically changes Medicare. McConnell says he's voting for it, but the rank-and-file are free to vote their conscience, The Hill's Alexander Bolton reports. That means more Republicans might vote against the controversial bill. That also leaves the Ryan budget "twisting in the wind," Bolton says. In the House, party leadership worked to keep the number of defectors down to four. McConnell's decision demonstrates how uneasy many Republicans are with the politics of tinkering with Medicare even as Newt Gingrich's battering, for criticizing the Ryan plan, shows the proposal is, in the words of pundits and Democrats, the "new conservative litmus test" (Reeve, 5/20)

Politico: Paul Ryan Gets Boost From Catholic Bishops
The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops sent Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan a letter yesterday commending his "continued attention" to Catholic social justice "in the current delicate budget considerations in Congress." "The budget is not just about numbers," Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan wrote in the letter. "It reflects the very values of our nation. As many religious leaders have commented, budgets are moral statements." Last month, Ryan (R-Wis.) sent a letter to Dolan outlining how the church's social teaching informed his budget. In the two-page letter, Dolan did not come out and expressly endorse the budget, insisting that he's a pastor, "not a politician." But he praised Ryan's attention to fiscal responsibility, the role of the family, the dignity of the person and human life and attention to the poor (Haberkorn, 5/19).

Modern Healthcare: White House Senate Democrats Say GOP Plan Will Hit Current Medicare Recipients
The Obama administration stepped up its attacks on the House-passed Republican deficit-reduction measure Thursday by strongly backing a Senate Democratic analysis that estimated some of the ways the Republican bill would impact current Medicare recipients, not just future beneficiaries. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius joined a group of liberal senators who were releasing the analysis of the Medicare impacts under the Republican deficit plan, which includes a rollback of the Affordable Care Act (Daly, 5/19).

The Hill: Dems Say House GOP Budget Would Cut Medicare Immediately
Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) plan to turn Medicare into a voucher system wouldn't kick in until 2022 — but Democrats say seniors would lose Medicare benefits immediately because Ryan's budget would also repeal health care reform. Ryan has scolded Democrats for their criticism of his Medicare proposal, which would convert the program into subsidies for private insurance, accusing them of scaring seniors into fearing cuts that won't affect them (Baker, 5/19).