John Nichols: Ryan's wrong - we need 'Medicare for all'

house budget committee chair paul ryan proposes to undermine the integrity of the medicare and medicaid programs, with an eye toward enriching the insurance companies that so generously fund his campaigns.

the american people are not amused. they have sent clear signals that they want to maintain medicare and medicaid.

ryan's town hall meetings in april featured noisy opposition in communities such as milton and kenosha, and tough questioning even in the most conservative communities of walworth county. likewise, republican house members from pennsylvania, florida and other states got earfuls at their town meetings.

the protests at the meetings were just the tip of the iceberg of objection to the plan championed by ryan, r-janesville.

polls show that roughly 80 percent of voters think it is a bad idea to try to balance the budget by gutting medicare and medicaid as ryan proposes-with a scheme to force seniors to buy coverage from private, for-profit insurance companies that happen to be major contributors to his campaign fund.

overwhelming majorities say that they would prefer that congress end tax cuts for wealthy americans and reduce pentagon spending before making any changes to medicare and medicaid....

http://host.madison.com/news/opinion/column/john_nichols/article_11940987-f7ac-59c9-85b2-a1cec1739844.html