Democrats are up in arms over Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush’s recent comments about Medicare. The former Florida Governor suggests Medicare be phased out.
At an Americans for Prosperity event Wednesday in New Hampshire, Jeb Bush argued Medicare—the program responsible for providing health benefits to senior citizens—needs to be replaced.
“I think a lot of people recognize that we need to make sure we fulfill the commitment to people that have already received the benefits, that are receiving the benefits, but that we need to figure out a way to phase out this program for others,” Bush said, “and move to a new system that allows them to have something—because they’re not going to have anything—and that argument I think is going to be a winning argument if we take it directly to people,”
Needless to say, Democrats were not pleased.
“Now once again, Jeb Bush has shown that he just doesn’t get it on the issues that matter to middle class families and not surprisingly to seniors,” Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz says. “Maybe Jeb Bush can afford to get by without Medicare. I’m sure the Koch brothers would be fine, too. But millions of Americans count on Medicare when they retire for access to high quality affordable healthcare.”
And Rich Fiesta of the Alliance for Retired Americans suggests Jeb Bush must be living in the pages of Oliver Twist.
“I don’t know if retirees and seniors need to now ask Jeb Bush for their bowl of porridge in his Dickensian world,” Fiesta says, “but calling him out is what we at the Alliance for Retired American and seniors will do for the rest of this campaign.”
Ironically, at the New Hampshire event Bush leveled a criticism often hurled at Republicans. The Democratic Party regularly harps on conservative obstinance to the affordable care act. But Bush argued it’s the left that is stonewalling when it comes to proposed revisions for Medicare.
