What's Next For Medicare Reform?

The Senate shot down House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) budget blueprint Wednesday in a 57-40 vote, beckoning the question; is Medicare too politically delicate to tamper with?

On the heels of the NY-26 special election, it’s clear that Ryan’s plan to shift Medicare to a privatized system has provided Democrats with ammunition for 2012. The Senate’s vote added clout to this notion and the likelihood of reform to the entitlement program is dwindling. 

There are Democrats, however, who don’t believe Medicare should emerge from this debate unscathed. Former President Bill Clinton spoke one-on-one with Ryan backstage at a bipartisan fiscal summit on Wednesday, telling the Wisconsin Republican that something must be done to strengthen Medicare in the long-run.  

“I’m glad we won this race in New York,” said Clinton, unaware that he and Ryan were being filmed. “But I hope the Democrats don’t use it as an excuse to do nothing.”

“My guess is it’s going to sink in to paralysis,” Ryan responded. “We knew we were putting ourselves out there but you gotta get out there, you gotta get this thing moving.”

Republican Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), one of all but five Republicans in the Senate who voted for Ryan’s plan, said that he believes Medicare must be reformed, but added that he prefers the plan put forth by former OMB Director Alice Rivlin and former Sen. Pete Dominici (R-N.M.), which gives seniors the option of staying in the current fee-for-service system.

Though they control the White House and one-half of Congress, Democrats have embraced a strategy of letting House Republicans take the lead on the budget, preferring to attack GOP attempts to cut vast amounts of spending and reform entitlements rather than pushing a plan of their own. Case in point: Not a single Democrat voted in favor of any of the four spending plans that were brough to the Senate floor on Wednesday.

While the move gives them political cover with seniors and low-income voters, it also has opened them up to criticism from Republicans, who are demanding that Democrats put forth a blueprint of their own. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) has accused Democrats of having no viable plan to reduce the deficit.

“The reason we have not seen a budget from Chairman Conrad and the Democrat Senate is because they know that they can’t put forward a plan that wins the support both of their caucus and of the American people,” Sessions said during a floor speech on Wednesday. The top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee added that he will try to keep the upper chamber in session next week should Democrats fail to produce a plan.

“If, after this shameful display, Majority Leader Reid wants to adjourn for recess, all I can say is this: not with my consent. I will force a vote on it. Senate Democrats will have to stand before the American people, having more than 750 days since passing a budget, and declare that they will go into a one-week vacation having not taken a single, solitary step to address our nation’s fiscal crisis.”

Geoff Holtzman contributed to this story.