Democrats rip Jeb Bush for Medicare “phase out”

At a rally in Manchester, N.H., Wednesday, Bush addressed what he sees as need for entitlement reform. Jeb Bush has previously said that he favors repealing Obamacare altogether because the advent of new technology like the Apple Watch will make the health law unnecessary.

“My Medicare right now is wonderful and I paid into it for all these years”.

It’s not almost as inflammatory as one of the Donald’s Trumpisms, but Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush’s latest remarks, made at an New Hampshire event held Wednesday night (and funded by the Americans For Prosperity – a Koch Brothers-backed group) may be just as out of touch with reality.

GOP lawmakers have pushed back on Democrats’ characterization that Ryan’s proposal to privatize Medicare amounts to “ending the program as we know it”, maintaining that they simply want to reform it. Even so, efforts to implement those reforms have been unsuccessful in Congress, largely because the health program is very popular among seniors and talking about changing it can be a political liability.

“Now once again, Jeb bush has shown that he just doesn’t get it on the issues that matter to middle class families and not surprisingly to seniors”, Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz says. The Democratic Party regularly harps on conservative obstinance to the affordable care act.

The call to end credits for fossil fuels may win the 2016 Republican contender measured praise from environmentalists who say that the oil and gas industry unfairly benefits from tax breaks that put clean energy at a competitive disadvantage. “We need to have a grown-up conversation about these issues”, Bush said to reporters after the town hall. Despite recent evidence that the program’s finances are secure, the former Florida governor suggested that Medicare isn’t solvent.

“If we do nothing that’s the burden we’re going to place on to your children and grandchildren that you’re concerned about and so am I”, Bush told the woman questioning him.

Needless to say, Democrats were not pleased.