US Republican vice presidential hopeful Paul Ryan campaigned with his mother on Saturday to combat allegations he wants to dismantle Medicare, a politically sensitive public health program for seniors.
The photo-op was the latest salvo in an increasingly bitter campaign battle in which the candidates hope to whip up support among seniors by accusing their rivals of endangering the popular, but expensive Medicare program.
“Like a lot of Americans, when I think about Medicare it’s not the program. It’s not a bunch of numbers. It’s what my mom relies on,” Ryan told supporters in the key battleground state of Florida, home to a large number of retirees.
Photo: AFP
Ryan’s 78-year-old mother, Betty Douglas, a part-time Florida resident, joined the candidate on stage at the rally in The Villages, a sprawling retirement community.
“My mom has been on Medicare for over 10 years,” Ryan said.
“She planned her retirement around this promise that the government made her,” he said, “and that’s a promise we have to keep.”
Florida is the largest of the so-called swing states expected to decide November’s election, making its huge senior population a key demographic for both candidates.
US President Barack Obama and his Democratic supporters have painted a withering picture of Ryan’s plans for social programs, as laid out in the Wisconsin US congressman’s controversial budget proposals.
Obama took aim at Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney and Ryan at a campaign stop in New Hampshire, saying his own plan had extended Medicare for “nearly a decade” while his rivals were bent on undermining the program.
“Their plan would put Medicare on track to be ended as we know it. It would be a different plan, a plan which you could not count on [for] health care because it would have to be coming out of your pocket,” Obama said. “That’s the real difference between our plans on Medicare. That’s the choice in this election, and that’s why I’m running for a second term as president.”
Ryan, 42, defended his stance on Medicare, saying his changes would only have an impact on Americans under the age of 55 and were necessary to keep the program from going bankrupt.
Ryan’s deficit-targeting plan called for deep cuts in US spending to deal with what Republicans say is an unsustainable US debt.
The plan included a proposal to introduce vouchers that seniors could use to purchase private health insurance.
Critics say the vouchers would be inadequate to cover the rising costs of health care and that younger and healthier retirees would likely opt for private insurance, leaving only those with no other options — the oldest, sickest and poorest — to use the public program, in turn driving up its costs.
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, in the top slot on the Republican ticket, has already sought to put some distance between his running mate’s proposals and his own.
“I have my budget plan ... And that’s the budget plan we’re going to run on,” Romney said in a recent interview with CBS News’ 60 Minutes.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in