i don t know that we know. if we were bogey to try to boil this down, they are there are so many different charges about who is cutting medicare more. i think what we would say is obama, for better or worse, has more modest changes or cuts to medicare. he has some. the republican plan has much more. so the question is how much change to medicare do you want? modest changes, obama s plan. or more radical changes because you re more worried about the fiscal sustainability of medicare. we re not hearing that debate because basically, neither side wants to. they want credit for being bold on the deficit. but they don t want credit for actually doing the things you need to do to cut the deficit, which is cut spending. i think david put it right and the way to think about this in the long-term, what happens if their first plan doesn t work. in the ryan plan, if it doesn t work, the cost gets shifted on to the patient.
that medicare tried to do a little bit less of paying for quantity of health care and more of paying for quality of health care. there are health experts to which the plan did more. there are those who see it as on the way to death panels. the obama plan. the white house, basically are saying no commitment to any recipient, someone over 65, nobody s going to get hurt. is that fair? well, i don t know whether that s fair. anytime you change a program, it has the poesh l to be potential to be better or worse. there may be things in the future that medicare doesn t pay for. on the other hand, there may be some things it now pays for that people like and may not be quite as generous in the future. what would ryan do? so, i think we can put ryan and romney broadly in the same place and say what they would do is move this to a different kind of system. whether you call it voucher of
loose. romney had a plan. people were going to blame obama. give romney a try. what has happened with paul ryan is that this has now shifted. the president was trying to shift it all along to who stands up for the middle class. this now confirms that. the shift in the dimension to debating privatetizing social security, voucherizing medicare, slashing education. they re worried not only about what s going to happen to the ticket, but to republican control of the house, which they thought was pretty much assured up until last week. i thought they wanted all the focus on obama as a referendum. like how s the guy doing out there on the mound? still got his fastball? you know, the old metaphors. now, the focus is on what about this new kid with his really strong ideas? is that what you want the focus if you re a republican operative right now? no, i think bob is right.
so the question is how much change to medicare do you want? modest changes, obama s plan. or more radical changes because you re more worried about the fiscal sustainability of medicare. we re not hearing that debate because basically, neither side wants to. they want credit for being bold on the deficit. but they don t want credit for actually doing the things you need to do to cut the deficit, which is cut spending. i think david put it right and the way to think about this in the long-term, what happens if their first plan doesn t work. in the ryan plan, if it doesn t work, the cost gets shifted on to the patient. you pay the difference for what you need for a reasonable plan and cheapest plan. in the obama world, it gets shifted on to providers who pay hospitals and drug companies, less money. that is a fundamental difference. providers that get cut under
people have to make judgment calls on where they think federal dollars should go. medicare s on the same path spending wise under obama and ryan. it will grow gdp plus 0.5%. obama tries to make that work by changing things on the provider and payment side. ryan does it by moving to a voucher program. if you re voting on medicare in the direction you think will be more effective. take a look at this romney campaign ad. it s the new tv ad attacking the president on medicare coming from romney s side. you paid into medicare for years. every paycheck. now when you need it, obama has cut $716 billion from medicare. why? to pay for obama care. so now the money you paid for your guaranteed health care is is going to a massive new government program that s not for you. the romney ryan plan protects medicare benefits for today s seniors and strengthens the plan for the next generation. again, the obama campaign had