Boehner Brushes Off NY-26, Defends Medicare Reform

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) acknowledged Thursday that Medicare played “a small part” in the NY-26 special election but defended House Budget Chair Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) plan to privatize the entitlement program. 

“Special elections are just that, they’re special,” the Speaker told reporters at a Thursday press conference. 

Boehner acknowledged that Medicare had something to do with how the election panned out, saying “the small part of the reason we didn’t win clearly had to do with Medicare.”

The Speaker downplayed Medicare’s role in the election by citing a sabotage-like campaign run by the race’s third party, Jack Davis, whom was a self-proclaimed Tea Partier. Boehner said Davis’ campaign spent millions of dollars attacking Republican candidate Jane Corwin.

“I could be critical of how the campaign was run,” Boehner said. “But, the fact is we didn’t win.”

In defense of Ryan’s Medicare reformations,  Boehner said that “the only plan out there to preserve and protect Medicare… is the plan we put forward.” Additionally, the Ohio Republican lashed out at his Democratic colleagues, charging them with being “the only ones” to cut Medicare when $500 billion were slashed in the Affordable Care Act. 

The Speaker accused Democrats of not having a plan and reminded reporters that “doing nothing means that the Medicare plan will go bankrupt.”

“We have a plan, frankly, that we believe in,” Boehner said. “Democrats have no plan… [and] it’s about time that they’re honest with the American people.”