GOP Looks Back to Good Old Days: 1951 and Last Year, Ryan Under Scrutiny

Welcome to 1951, Courtesy of the Republicans

"House Republicans expect to adopt a budget resolution this week that envisions eliminating most federal debt by cutting government’s share of the economy to a level not seen since 1951, before Medicare, Medicaid, the Environmental Protection Agency and the space program.  Federal spending as a proportion of gross domestic product would fall by one-third by 2050 to 16 percent from 24 percent in 2011, according to calculations by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. T he last time it was at that level, Harry Truman was president, and Nat King Cole ruled the pop charts."

"'You end up in a very different world than we’ve been used to in the past 50 to 60 years,' said former CBO Director Robert Reischauer.  The blueprint, written by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, 'would eliminate many of the elements of government that people depend on and that people want,' Reischauer said."

Hey!  Truman supported government health care and the New Deal (mostly).  And Eisenhower, a Republican, was elected after Truman.  So, this would be a return to a pre-Republican era.

GOP Revisits Last Year's Medicare

"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."

"The blueprint by House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan is similar to his controversial Medicare plan last year, in that it ends the health insurance guarantee for seniors and replaces the program with a subsidized insurance-exchange system.  Unlike last year’s plan, seniors can buy into traditional Medicare as a sort-of public option, and the vouchers it provides are more generous."

Ryan at Home

"Democrats have gone straight to Rep. Paul Ryan’s hometown to blast the Wisconsin Republican’s budget plan.  Ahead of Thursday’s anticipated vote on the spending proposal, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee purchased a billboard advertisement that reads, 'Congressman Ryan: Protecting Millionaires Instead of Medicare.'"

Affordable Care Debate

From Kaiser Health News:  Webcast Replay: Deconstructing The Supreme Court's Historic Health Law Arguments

For Your Information

Reagan’s solicitor general: ‘Health care is interstate commerce. Is this a regulation of it? Yes. End of story.’

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