Tag: Medicare

Congressional candidate Sal Pace set another fundraising record as he continues to demonstrate his ability to compete against Scott Tipton in the 3rd Congressional District.

Freshman Colorado Congressman Scott Tipton received an award recently for his work in support of senior citizens from a group called RetireSafe. Tipton was one of 20 Republicans elected to Congress from swing districts to have received the award, according to RollCall, but the award was fake, or at least, the group that gave the award was fake.

A poll released this week by Bloomberg shows Texas Governor Rick Perry with a small lead (26-22) over former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, with no other candidate preferred by even 10 percent of Republicans. Perry, though, is viewed favorably by only three in ten Americans while being viewed unfavorably by four in ten. Perry, at this point, trails Obama 49-40 among all voters, according to the poll.

Freshman Republican Congressman Cory Gardner weathered a drawn out if ultimately not-close Tea Party caucus battle last year and rode the Republican wave to victory over Democrat Betsy Markey.* Less than a year later, he's again navigating the increasingly rocky electoral waters of Colorado's sprawling Fourth District.

If enacted, the Ryan Medicare plan could result in significant cuts to health programs in Colorado. The proposal, titled “The Path to Prosperity,” was introduced in April by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI). The plan would overturn the Affordable Care Act and make considerable changes to both Medicare and Medicaid.

Congressional Republicans need to “take Medicare off the table” and deal directly with the nation’s debt-ceiling, U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said Friday.

Across the political spectrum, Coloradans strongly oppose cutting Social Security to reduce the deficit, according to a poll released today (pdf) and conducted by Lake Research Partners. The poll was commissioned by Social Security advocate groups that are sounding alarms about Republican proposals to deeply cut into entitlement programs to attack the deficit. What's getting lost in the rhetoric around the budget, the groups say, is that Social Security doesn't contribute a dime to the deficit yet the Republican budget plan nevertheless opens the program up to cuts. More significant, they say, is that the GOP plan to cut Medicare benefits through privatization will eat up ever larger portions of seniors' Social Security income.

Congressman Ed Perlmutter yesterday told House Republicans to back off efforts to reorganize Medicare. He said Medicare has helped millions of older Americans and is not the reason the the country is running a deficit.

Democrat Kathy Hochul is reportedly streaming ahead of Republican Jane Corwin in the Buffalo-area special election that has been marked out as a first test of the controversial GOP congressional budget plan crafted by Paul Ryan that seeks to "save" Medicare by turning it into a voucher system. Hochul hammered on the Ryan Medicare plan and Corwin defended it mostly by backing away from it.

Just as Republican lawmakers promote their plan to slash federal spending by turning Medicare into a new-style voucher program, come the eye-popping numbers tied to the National Defense Authorization Act. Colorado Republican Congressman Doug Lamborn, who has praised the proposed Medicare cuts and led the charge to slash federal funding for popular programs like public broadcasting this year as necessary belt-tightening, is celebrating his vote to spend $690 billion on the military next year.