KOSU (Oklahoma City)
December 15, 2011

(…) Ethan Rome, head of the advocacy group Health Care for America Now, said the proposal is “just another version of the Ryan Republican plan to do away with Medicare and bankrupt seniors, but this time it’s got one Democrat on board.”

Just because Wyden’s on board “doesn’t make it bipartisan,” Rome said, and the latest plan would ultimately replace “guaranteed benefits with vouchers.”

Wyden, for his part, said he doesn’t think Republicans will be able to use the new proposal to walk away from their support for Ryan’s earlier, more radical rewrite of Medicare. “Nobody ducks their past votes and their previous statements. That’s just a given,” he said.

But it appears some Republicans are already trying.

Speaking on Iowa Public Television, GOP presidential frontrunner Newt Gingrich called it “a very important breakthrough” and “a bipartisan effort to really come to grips with one of the major entitlement challenges we face.”

And, according to a tweet from Talking Points Memo’s Brian Beutler, House Speaker John Boehner called the plan “a bipartisan idea that’s worthy of our consideration” and “a step in the right direction.”

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