Politico...
Overflow crowds for
Paul Ryan town halls
By Jennifer Haberkorn
KENOSHA, Wis. — Record crowds of supporters and opponents flooded town
hall meetings throughout southeastern Wisconsin on Tuesday to hear
Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) defend his plan to trim
government spending — including controversial changes to the Medicare
program.
In the district’s Democratic stronghold of Kenosha, at least 200 people
were left outside once the 300-seat auditorium filled to capacity. The
people in the crowd largely opposed the Ryan plan, holding signs such
as “RyanCare = Dying Bare,” “Leave Medicare Alone” or simply, “Save
Medicare!”
While Ryan spoke inside, the group rallied outside and ironically
played Shania Twain’s “Ka-Ching,” which criticizes society’s obsession
with money. As Ryan was leaving, they chanted, “Tax the rich, too!”
At four town hall meetings throughout Ryan’s district Tuesday, some
constituents applauded him for his courage to tackle economic problems
but others expressed concern about what the Medicare changes would do —
to themselves or their grandchildren.
“The problem is, under your program, when you want to give me X amount
of dollars, with the insurance companies, the way they operate ... if I
can’t afford insurance, then where am I going to be?” asked one
62-year-old woman with a history of cancer who worried she wouldn’t
qualify for private insurance coverage under Ryan’s plan.
George Kauffman, an 80-year-old man from Kenosha, didn’t make it into
Ryan’s town hall meeting before capacity was reached. The former auto
union worker and then small-business owner said he is skeptical about
Ryan’s promise that Medicare benefits for those 55 and older won’t
change.
“When you let your foot in the door, it’s easy to adjust things later,”
he told POLITICO.
The attention is much more than Ryan has been used to. Before the
Kenosha meeting, the dozen “regulars” at the Lake Geneva, Wis., town
hall meeting were shocked to see well more than 100 people turn out.
Down the road in Paddock Lake, the meeting room reached capacity of 75
people before it was due to start and several constituents and
reporters were left outside.
Ryan told the crowds that it’s a larger turnout than he saw during the
infamous health care town halls during summer 2009.
Using a PowerPoint presentation that he said he prepared himself, Ryan
pushed back on the criticism to his budget plan largely by pitting it
against President Barack Obama’s health care reform law and budget
proposal, which calls for strengthening the Independent Payment
Advisory Board.
Ryan said the Republican plan would keep benefits the same for those
over 55 and strengthen the program for the future.
“The president, on the other hand, kind of does the opposite,” he told
a crowd of about 100 people at a morning town hall in Lake Geneva. “His
new health care law … puts a board in charge of cutting costs in
Medicare.”
Throughout the day, Ryan repeatedly tried to draw a stark line between
his plan and the IPAB. He said the board would “automatically put price
controls in Medicare” and “diminish the quality of care for seniors.”
The Medicare piece of the Republican budget proposal is among the most
controversial. Several other House Republicans have taken heat at
similar town hall meetings for their vote.
Ryan dismissed the criticism while talking with reporters outside of
one meeting. He chalked it up simply to Democrats twisting his plan
around.
“Scaring seniors comes out every two years,” he said. ‘The challenge we
have is getting through the demagoguery.”
And Ryan supporters also stepped up to thank him for tackling the
budget.
“What you’re doing requires a great deal of moral courage,” William
Keough, a 68-year-old from Salem, Wis., told Ryan. “Your countrymen
recognize that.”
Read it at Politico
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