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At the heart of the Democrats’ war against the House GOP proposal — spearheaded by Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) — is its plan to dramatically reshape Medicare in order to contain costs and keep the health care program for seniors viable. This year’s budget is expected to incorporate a modified version of the Medicare revamp drafted by both Ryan and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) that would allow seniors to keep the traditional Medicare program or enroll in an alternative private plan.

The addition of Wyden’s name could allow Republicans to claim bipartisanship on the Medicare proposal, but Democrats said Monday that they weren’t buying it. They said there’s essentially no change from the Ryan proposal on Medicare last year, under which all incoming seniors would have been enrolled into a private plan funded by federal subsidies.

“We don’t see a difference in principle between the original Ryan budget and the Ryan-Wyden proposal,” Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) told reporters on a conference call Monday. Democrats “think that both are, in fact, equally bad or only marginally different but still end Medicare as we know it.”

Democrats believe public opinion is on their side. In a Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation poll released earlier this month, 70 percent of those surveyed said they wanted the traditional Medicare program to remain intact, including 53 percent of Republicans.

And the Democrats’ fusillade against Republicans on Medicare was key in their May 2011 special election victory in upstate New York, where now-Rep. Kathy Hochul turned the campaign in the traditionally GOP district into a referendum on the Ryan plan.


One year later, Democrats are eager to replicate that formula in an offensive that comes as they try to defend a still-unpopular health care law on the eve of its second anniversary.
“For the next few days, all our focus is going to be on Medicare,” said a senior Democratic aide, who added that no Democrats were expected to support the House Republican budget when it heads to the floor for a vote next week.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee got an early start in rebutting the House GOP proposal. The committee launched a “Medicare March” campaign targeting 41 House Republicans in key districts with automated phone calls and a website that helps voters find town hall events and participate in online phone banking.

“We will also see a lot of candidates weighing in and doing events and organizing and really focusing on the fact that Republican incumbents that they are running against are voting to end the Medicare guarantee,” said Jennifer Crider, a DCCC spokeswoman.

“This is only the first stage of our campaign,” Crider added.

The DCCC announced Monday that it raised $6.3 million in February and had $16.4 million cash on hand — giving it plenty of money to use against the GOP this cycle. Crider declined to say how much the committee will spend on the grass-roots push.

Meanwhile, the budget House Democrats plan to release is expected to reflect much of the taxing and spending priorities outlined in President Barack Obama’s budget released in February. Lawmakers were still negotiating details, but Van Hollen said it will include tax rates for the wealthy similar to those under President Bill Clinton, as well as a version of the so-called Buffett rule, which calls for the rich to pay a larger share of their income in taxes.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) has proposed a version of the Buffett rule in the Senate. It would require those earning more than $1 million to pay at least 30 percent of their income to the federal government.
“We will take a balanced approach to reducing the deficit, meaning that we make some tough cuts, but we also ask millionaires to share in the responsibility,” said Van Hollen, the top Democrat on the Budget Committee.

Ryan has also been aggressively promoting his coming budget proposal. On Monday, he released the second in a series of videos highlighting the nation’s monumental debt.

“In 2010, voters asked for an alternative to the direction government was taking the country,” Ryan says in the video, accompanied by an ominous soundtrack. “Last year, House Republicans responded by passing a budget to control government spending. And we’re back with a budget that offers real solutions again.”