by Before Mitt Romney had even finished introducing Paul Ryan to the press and to the country as his running mate on Saturday, President Obama’s campaign manager Jim Messina sent an email to reporters stating that Ryan would,
“end Medicare as we know it by turning it into a voucher system, shifting thousands of dollars in health care costs to seniors.”
During the announcement, Ryan uttered not a word about Medicare, but that didn’t stop critics from voicing their views on the many ways Ryan is bad news for seniors, at least.
A tweet from ‘Think Progress’ declared, “If you hate Medicare, you’ll love Romney’s pick for VP.”
‘Health Care for America Now’ agrees, sending a message of their own to Twitter. “Romney picks Paul Ryan for VP, ensuring race will be about repealing #Obamacare, ending #Medicare as we know it. http://bit.ly/OatV2f #hcr.”
Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat from Missouri, also went after Ryan and his budget for
“cutting Medicare and then giving those cuts to the mega wealthy. Wrong.”
While Ryan was silent on the matter of Medicare during Saturday’s announcement, Romney did refer to it in his words while introducing his running mate to the audience:
“Unlike the current president who has cut Medicare funding by $700 billion, we will preserve and protect Medicare and Social Security,” Romney said. “Under the current president, health care has only become more expensive. We will reform health care so that more Americans have access to affordable healthcare, and we will get that started by repealing and replacing Obamacare.”
Supporting Romney and Ryan with his own tweet, ex-contender for the job of VP wannabee Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida wrote:
“When will @barackobama unveil his plan to #savemedicare? If u support leaving as is u support bankrupting medicare. #Americascomebackteam.”