Biden: Republican candidates would "end Medicare as we know it"
In a state home to millions of seniors, Vice President Joe Biden will knock the Republican presidential candidates for their plans for Medicare. In a speech today in Florida, the vice president will say the GOP plan is to "end Medicare as we know it."
"We believe in strengthening Medicare. They don't," Biden will say this afternoon at a retirement community in Coconut Beach, according to excerpts of his prepared remarks released by the campaign.
Biden's campaign speech comes the same week Republican Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin released his budget proposal. The Democrats are using the Ryan plan, which has little chance of passing both bodies of Congress, to launch a coordinated attack to pin the Republicans with wanting to eliminate Medicare, the government health care plan for seniors.
The Ryan plan, which has been endorsed by Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, would offer seniors vouchers to purchase a a private insurance plan.
According to the excerpts, Biden will call out three of the four Republican presidential candidates for backing the Ryan plan.
"If Republicans in Congress and their amen corner of Romney, Santorum, and Gingrich get their hands on the White House, they will end Medicare as we know it," Biden says.
In a news conference earlier this week, Ryan responded to Democrats' critiques. "If we simply operate based on political fear, nothing's ever going to get done," Ryan said. "Medicare under the president's law is going bankrupt."
During his Coconut Beach speech, Biden also addresses the economy and hammers Republicans for proposals to "cut, cap and balance" the federal budget.
Biden offers his interpretation of their plan.
"The 'cut' is cutting Social Security. The 'cap' is putting a cap on what we ask the wealthiest Americans to pay in taxes. And the 'balance' is balancing the budget on the backs of seniors and middle class Americans," he will say.