SPIN METER: Once Medicare's foe, GOP now boosts it

NEW YORK — Weren't Republicans against Medicare before they were for it?

It's a question vexing Democrats in the fierce battle over President Barack Obama's push for a health care overhaul as the head of the Republican Party has portrayed the GOP as the lone bulwark preventing deep cuts to the popular, government-run health plan for older people.

It's a remarkable turnaround for a party whose leaders tried to slash billions from Medicare more than a decade ago and have assailed the program as a wasteful entitlement. None other than Ronald Reagan, a hero to Republicans, warned in 1961 that creation of Medicare would push the country toward socialism.

The new GOP posture may be politically savvy given older Americans' fears of major changes to Medicare, which were among the concerns widely on display at angry town hall meetings across the country last month. But the new stance also contradicts the party's long history of skepticism toward government-run programs and Republican concerns about the long-term viability and health of the Medicare system.

The Republican National Committee recently launched a new campaign, "The Seniors' Bill of Rights," that pledged to prevent cuts to Medicare and protect the elderly from health care rationing based on age.

"Let's agree in both parties that Congress should only consider health reform proposals that protect senior citizens," the GOP chairman, Michael Steele, said in a television ad released in conjunction with the campaign.
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Is like trusting a Torah to a bunch of Nazis.

FEMA ...

5 months ago!.