White House budget meeting leads to Medicare fracas

The dispute emerged between Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and President Barack Obama as Ryan urged Obama not to engage in Medicare "demagoguery." The president responded by listing conservatives' attack points.

The New York Times: Obama Urged To Act Quickly On Budget Agreement
The White House meeting on Wednesday was expected to focus on the debt limit fight, but instead got caught up in the dispute over Medicare.  Following the session, Representative Paul D. Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican who is chairman of the Budget Committee, said he asked Mr. Obama to not engage in demagogy about the Republicans' Medicare plan, which was under fierce attack from Democrats as essentially being a voucher program for older Americans (Hulse and Calmes, 6/2).

Los Angeles Times: President Obama, House Republicans Meet On Debt Ceiling
A testy White House meeting between President Obama and House Republican leaders Wednesday failed to lower the partisan pitch in the capital, much less make progress toward a deal on the federal debt ceiling. Instead, the two sides traded complaints. …  Rep. Paul D. Ryan, architect of a Medicare overhaul aimed at slashing the cost of the popular entitlement program by reducing the government's open-ended commitment to seniors, accused Obama of "mis-describing" his plan and implored the president to ease up on the "demagoguery." In reply, Obama said he was no stranger to cartoonish depictions, reeling off a list of conservatives' favorite attack points: "I'm the death-panel-supporting, socialist, may-not-have-been-born-here president," Obama said, according to people familiar with his remarks (Nicholas and Mascaro, 6/1).

The Wall Street Journal: Budget Face-Off At White House
A highlight of Wednesday's meeting came in the exchange between Mr. Obama and Mr. Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican who heads the House budget committee and has become a chief GOP spokesman on fiscal issues. Mr. Ryan said he told the president that mischaracterizing each other's positions wasn't helpful. "If we demagogue each other at the leadership level, then we're never going to take on our debt," Mr. Ryan told the president, according to an account he later gave to reporters. Mr. Obama responded by telling Republicans that both parties were guilty of demagoguery, according to people at the meeting. White House press secretary Jay Carney later said Mr. Obama didn't believe he has misrepresented Mr. Ryan's Medicare plan (Hook and Lee, 6/2).

ABC News: Medicare Threatens To Derail Debt Ceiling, Budget Negotiations As Dems, GOP Dig In
Medicare has quickly become the chief issue of contention in budget negotiations that could derail talks on raising the U.S. debt ceiling and send the country spiraling into default. Republicans charge that Democrats are simply demagoging the issue as a political ploy for the 2012 elections without proposing a concrete plan of their own (Khan, 6/1).

Politico: A Guide To The Barack Obama - Paul Ryan Smackdown
Rep. Paul Ryan scolds President Barack Obama for calling his Medicare plan a "voucher." Obama fires back at House Republicans for accusing him of cutting Medicare in the health reform law. And across the country, millions of cable news viewers wonder what they're fighting about — and who to believe. The tension may have made for an awkward meeting between Obama and House Republicans at the White House Wednesday — and really bad small talk, too — but it's a good opportunity to look at what's behind the talking points (Nather, 6/1).

The Hill: White House On Ryan's Medicare Reforms: It's A 'Voucher Plan'
Hours after Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) asked President Obama to stop "demagoguing" his Medicare reforms by calling it a voucher plan, the White House declared it has no intention of backing off. "What you call it doesn't change what it is and what it does," said White House press secretary Jay Carney. "It is a voucher plan." Carney said that the president's criticisms — he would not endorse or condemn the efforts of other Democrats to demonize the proposal — are not "a matter of demagoguery" (Youngsman, 6/1).

The Fiscal Times: GOP Presses Obama for Trillions in Cuts
Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., House Budget Committee Chair and author of the GOPs' controversial Medicare plan, said the president has described his proposal incorrectly as a voucher program. "I just said we've got to take on this debt and if we demagogue each other at the leadership level then we're never going to take on our debt," Ryan told reporters after the meeting. ... Obama "doesn't believe that we need to end Medicare as we know it," White House press secretary Jay Carney said at a White House briefing, about an hour after the meeting (DePaul, 6/1).

CNN: Ryan Challenges The President To Stop Playing Politics With Medicare
House Republican Budget chairman Paul Ryan directly challenged President Obama at a meeting with all House Republicans Wednesday, urging him to stop playing politics with Medicare and start leading on the issue of entitlement reform, according to Republican sources in the room. The exchange came at a meeting at the White House with all House Republicans when Ryan told the president that he wasn't leading on the issue of Medicare and that leaders can either solve problems "or exacerbate them" (Walsh, 6/1).

The Associated Press/Washington Post:  Fact Check: Democrats Are Distorting The Fundamentals Of Republican Plan To Reshape Medicare
Democrats are distorting the fundamentals of a Republican plan to reshape Medicare, falsely accusing the GOP of pushing a proposal that tells the elderly "you're on your own" with health care and that lets insurers deny coverage to the sick (6/2).

Roll Call: McConnell Tries To Shield GOP On Medicare
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is moving to insulate Republicans on the politically thorny Medicare reform issue by insisting that it be included in any bipartisan agreement to raise the debt ceiling. With Senate Republicans divided on how to deal with Medicare amid potent Democratic charges that the GOP wants to gut it, the Kentucky Republican is looking to an eventual debt ceiling deal not only to score a long-sought policy victory on the popular health care entitlement for seniors, but also to do so without damaging his party's 2012 prospects (Drucker, 6/2).