Is the GOP's Medicare-slashing plan dead?

A rift is growing in the GOP, as Senate Republicans backpedal even further from Rep. Paul Ryan's controversial plan to shrink the deficit

Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Wisc.)
(Image credit: Jeff Malet/www.maletphoto.com)

Republicans seem to be backing away from Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) much-debated plan to turn Medicare into a voucher system. Senate Republicans are introducing their own budget plan, sponsored by Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), that doesn't touch Medicare (although it would still turn Medicaid into a state block grant program), and even House GOP leaders are distancing themselves from Ryan's bold Medicare proposal. Is this a short-term tactical retreat, or a burial?

Ryan's plan is dead: When House Republicans made the politically disastrous decision to back Ryan's plan, says Steve Benen at Washington Monthly, they were obviously hoping their Senate colleagues would follow. What they got instead was "something of a rebuke." And "the party will be paying for this overreach for quite a while."

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