Ryan responds to his critics, Right and Left

Newt Gingrich gave himself a fatal wound when he criticized Ryan's plan for Medicare.  The critics on the Left are even less persuasive.  The question is not whether Medicare is sustainable, it's not in its present form, but how health care for the elderly can be delivered at reasonable cost. 

James Pethokoukis quotes Ryan:

The President’s plan begins with trillions of dollars in higher taxes, and it relies on a plan to control costs in Medicare that would give a board of 15 unelected bureaucrats in Washington the power to deeply ration care. This would disrupt the lives of those currently in retirement and lead to waiting lists for today’s seniors. … The disagreement isn’t really about the problem. It’s about the solution to controlling costs in Medicare.

And if I could sum up that disagreement in a couple of sentences, I would say this: Our plan is to give seniors the power to deny business to inefficient providers. Their plan is to give government the power to deny care to seniors.

… That’s the real class warfare that threatens us — a class of governing elites picking winners and losers, and determining our destinies for us.

I will fight to keep my health care decisions away from some government bureaucrat.