In a speech accepting the Republican vice presidential nomination, Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan did not shy away from a controversial proposal that would essentially convert Medicare to a voucher system for those younger than 55.
Ryan did not specifically spell out the already-familiar plan in his remarks to the Republican National Convention in the Tampa Bay Times Forum, but he also made it clear that Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign did not intend to walk away from it.
Romney adopted a similar plan even before selecting Ryan as his running mate.
“Ladies and gentlemen, our nation needs this debate,” Ryan said. “We want this debate. We will win this debate.”
Instead, Ryan repeated the GOP argument that President Barack Obama’s plan reduces the future growth of Medicare by more than $700 billion to help fund the president’s health-care plan.
“An obligation we have to our parents and grandparents is being sacrificed, all to pay for a new entitlement we didn’t even ask for,” Ryan said. “The greatest threat to Medicare is Obamacare, and we’re going to stop it.”
The Obama campaign says the Medicare savings, contained in the health-care overhaul the president signed into law in 2010, will come from efficiencies and not reduced benefits.
Ryan also took on the traditional running mate’s role as an attack dog. He hammered Obama on everything from the lagging economic recovery to the growing national debt to what the GOP says is a weak foreign policy.
“Without a change in leadership, why would the next four years be any different from the last four years?” Ryan asked.
