Obama opposes Ryan-Wyden plan

The White House has compared House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) new Medicare plan to Newt Gingrich’s old ideas. 

The new plan from Ryan and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) is “the wrong way to reform Medicare,” White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said in a news release.

Pfeiffer said the new plan “would end Medicare as we know it for millions of seniors.” He invoked Gingrich’s 1995 statement that Medicare would “wither on the vine” when faced with competition from private insurers.

{mosads}“The Wyden-Ryan scheme could, over time, cause the traditional Medicare program to ‘wither on the vine’ because it would raise premiums, forcing many seniors to leave traditional Medicare and join private plans,” Pfeiffer said.