House Republicans dismiss constituents' ire toward proposed Medicare changes

House Republicans remain determined to eliminate traditional Medicare, dismissing opposition from constituents at dozens of town-hall meetings during the current two-week congressional recess as the work of political foes.

Republicans contend that activists dispatched by MoveOn.org and other Democratic allies have hijacked the often-raucous events, even as some lawmakers have tried to control the tone of forums. The reactions have echoed the angry crowds that confronted Democratic supporters of President Obama's health-care overhaul during summer 2009.

"This is not genuine anger over Medicare; it's manufactured political anger that's causing the disturbances," said freshman Rep. Lou Barletta, R-Pa.

Under the GOP proposal, written by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, Medicare would be replaced with a program that would subsidize health coverage for seniors rather than provide it directly.

Many Democrats contend such a change would leave the elderly with inadequate health care, and a study by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that future retirees would pay much more under Ryan's plan than under traditional Medicare. By 2030, for example, a typical 65-year-old would pay two-thirds of his or her health costs.

At one town-hall event, Barletta offered a slide show detailing the GOP plan, which would not affect people now 55 or older. The presentation quickly devolved into a shouting match after a constituent accused Republicans of trying to destroy Medicare.

Barletta dismissed the hecklers as Democratic plants and said he would keep promoting the plan. "It's very important for me to continue to have these meetings to make sure that seniors know they have nothing to worry about," he said.

Rep. Daniel Webster, R-Fla., faced a similarly unruly crowd Tuesday night at a packed town-hall meeting in Orlando, where some people brandished signs such as "Hands Off Medicare" and demanded he instead "tax the rich."

Webster, shown in a video, sought to defuse the situation by telling constituents any changes were years away and current retirees would not see a difference.

Farther south that night, a meeting between U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., and constituents at a Fort Lauderdale church theater began on a chaotic note, with audience members on their feet, some heckling him and others loudly defending him.

Even though West had asked a moderator to select and vet constituents' questions, three hecklers were removed from the forum, including one in handcuffs, according to news reports.

"You're not going to intimidate me," West said.

Polls suggest the Medicare and taxes arguments could be difficult ones for Republicans. Americans show little willingness to hand more Medicare services to the private sector, and majorities endorse increasing taxes on the wealthiest Americans, as Obama advocates.

The GOP plan would send tax rates in the other direction, reducing the rate for the highest-paid Americans from 35 to 25 percent.

That provision also proved problematic for some GOP lawmakers meeting voters back home. Ryan was booed and heckled as he explained his rationale for lowering taxes for the wealthy. The scene was captured on video and publicized by the liberal website ThinkProgress.

Democrats face pressure as well to show they can bring spending under control and rein in the national debt, and there are fissures within the party about whether to back tax increases and raise the national-debt ceiling without concrete steps to bring down the budget deficit. But they reject the accusation that they have orchestrated the outrage.

"Republicans must be so blinded by their extreme ideology that they can't see what's happening at town halls across the country where the American people are rejecting their radical scheme to end Medicare and raise health-care costs for seniors," said Jesse Ferguson, spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Before the release of Ryan's proposal, Republicans had expressed confidence that public opinion had turned in their favor, and House leaders sought this week to reassure the rank and file that their budget approach eventually would carry the day.

Led by Speaker John Boehner, Republicans used a conference call to urge House members to tell voters the White House spending plan was a bigger threat to jobs and health care.

Officials familiar with the call said lawmakers did not seem alarmed at the response they were receiving, and Ryan told his fellow Republicans he had been successful in making the case that Medicare would go bankrupt without intervention.

Yet, news reports noted Ryan himself faced a mixed response Tuesday at four tense meetings with voters, some of whom were turned away because of overflow crowds. He left one through a different door and in a different car because of security concerns, according to Milwaukee television station WTMJ.

That's just another indication Republicans still have a big selling job to do on their budget, especially to older constituents who tend to turn out to vote at higher rates than younger people.

"I think what we have in Washington right now working on Medicare are a bunch of clowns," said Fort Lauderdale retiree Robert Murphy, 73. "I think they should leave Medicare alone. But I know they can't leave it the way it is."

Compiled from Bloomberg News, The New York Times, The Associated Press and the Tribune Washington bureau