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Digital News Report – U.S. Senator from Wyoming Mike Enzi said that the current health care plan calls for cuts to Medicare and he is against that. “If Medicare were separate, and any savings that we did in Medicare reform went back into Medicare, it would do a lot to relieve the tension that’s out there,” the Senator said.
The Republican Party has often been considered the “conservative” party. Now that Democrats have called for savings in the Medicare program, Republicans are taking the opposite approach.
This is unusual according one American economist. “It’s not just the fact that Republicans are now posing as staunch defenders of a program they have hated ever since the days when Ronald Reagan warned that Medicare would destroy America’s freedom,” said Paul Krugman in an op-ed piece. “What’s amazing, however, is that they’re getting away with it.”
Bruce Bartlett told Forbes Magazine that “Once upon a time, the Republican Party opposed open-ended entitlement programs like Medicare as a matter of principle.” Republican suffered at the polls for years because of their stance. That has all changed now according to Bartlett. “Today, the GOP not only doesn’t oppose entitlements, it has become their defender.”
By: Mark Williams