House Republicans back away on Medicare
WASHINGTON |
(Reuters) - Republicans in Congress on Thursday appeared to back away from a contentious plan to overhaul Medicare, saying the fate of the healthcare program for the elderly may have to wait until after the 2012 elections.
As Vice President Joe Biden hosted bipartisan White House talks on cutting the $1.4 trillion U.S. deficit, House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee Chairman David Camp said his committee would not move forward on a Republican plan to privatize Medicare because it was not likely to win support from Democrats.
At the same time, the Medicare plan's author, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, said Republicans hoped to achieve some spending cuts in budget negotiations but predicted that broad changes would not be in play until after 2012.
"We're not under any illusion that we are going to get any grand slam agreement," Ryan said.
The comments could suggest a new pragmatic tone by Republicans in budget negotiations taking place as Congress faces an August 2 deadline for raising the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling or risk defaulting on its obligations, an outcome that could devastate world financial markets.
The debt limit, which will be reached by May 16, has been seen as a Republican lever for pressuring President Barack Obama and Democratic lawmakers into accepting deep cuts in federal spending as well as Ryan's plan to convert the Medicare system into a system of government funded healthcare vouchers.
Democrats planned to campaign on Ryan's politically risky Medicare plan in the 2012 election campaign, seeing it as a potential vote loser for their opponents. If Republicans agree to put the plan aside that would remove a potential weapon in the Democrats' election arsenal.
FINDING A WORKABLE PLAN
Republicans encountered voter anger over the plan during Congress' annual spring break, which ended this week, potentially raising the prospects for a compromise agreement.
But House Republican Leader Eric Cantor said on Wednesday he still intended to press for the provisions of the Ryan 2012 budget plan, which includes Medicare reform, during Thursday's White House deficit talks.
Ryan's budget plan has already passed the Republican-controlled House.
Camp, who chairs the House's main tax-writing body, said in a speech he would now rather have a compromise on Medicare that could survive a vote in the Democratic-controlled Senate and win approval from Obama.
"I'm interested in finding a way forward that will get signed into law," he said at an event sponsored by Health Affairs, a health policy journal.
Ryan acknowledged in a speech to the American Council for Capital Formation that Republicans and Democrats were too far apart on how to slow the growth of Medicare and other government-run health programs to reach agreement before 2012.
"I think 2012 is going to be the ultimate decider of these things. There are other things that can be done to make improvements, and that's what I think this debt limit debate is about," he said.
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