Of all the government spending topics around which debates are centered and on which elections can be won or lost, health care is one of the most contentious.
The supporters and opponents of President Obama's medical legislation continue to spar, and the conversation was recently made more complex with the introduction of a plan from Wisconsin Republican Rep. Paul Ryan that deals with Medicare. A primary component of Ryan's option, noted by the AP, is that it wouldn't lead to changes for Americans currently older than 55, but later Medicare recipients would get subsidies allowing them to buy private coverage.
Now, the group Let Freedom Ring and the College Republican National Committee have unveiled a website aimed at America's youth, with the goal being to convince the youngest voters to press for an alternative to Obama's approach to medical care spending by the government. The site contains a petition that the groups hope will garner enough signatures to bolster their case.
Let Freedom Ring's executive director, Alex Cortes, joined Dan and Aaron to discuss Obama's health measures and the Ryan plan.
Cortes and his group say Medicare reform is essential in order for the program, which helps provide health coverage for older Americans, to remain alive and capable of supporting in the future those for whom it's intended. No one is saying current seniors should stop getting Medicare, Cortes says, but younger Americans need to demand and expect changes in the program if they want to have any benefits from it when they themselves are retired.
"If we don't reform it, we will not have a program available to us," he says in the accompanying clip. "Medicare as it currently is, is an unsustainable program."
Republicans, he says, need to call on Democrats to respond to Ryan's proposals, and not by simply putting Obama's health plan alongside it and asking Americans to parse the two.
"Whether you disagree or agree with Ryan's plan, the fact is he has proposed a serious plan that restores Medicare solvency," he says. "The president has a burden on him to do the same."
For more, be sure to watch the interview. Then share your thoughts with us. Do you support the Ryan plan, or is President Obama's health care law the way to go? Or is there another alternative?
