The un-united front: Senate Republicans to leave Medicare untouched in their budget?

Ryan Streeter
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The Hill reports:

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) is expected to unveil a budget blueprint Tuesday that leaves Medicare alone, the strongest signal yet that Senate Republicans have no intention of duplicating an ambitious — and controversial — overhaul put forward by the House GOP.

Instead, the proposal is expected to maintain the blockgranting of Medicaid to the states that Paul Ryan included in his budget.

This all reinforces point #1 in my post this morning. Though the House leadership scrambled to keep itself in line with its late-breaking "we stand united" press release last Friday, the Senate appears poised to break ranks.

Three points:

1. Well, he first commenter in the Hill article makes the point better than I can: "WRONG…if the GOP leadership does not support the Ryan budget, we need new leadership. Stop being wimps and address the problem already! What is the matter with you people??!!?"
2. Instead of moving with a spirit of bipartisanship, the Republicans are playing into the Democratic critique: the GOP is in the pocket of seniors' interests, but they hate the poor. The leadership should decide to reform both of the "big M" entitlements, or neither. Don't be halfway scared. Be all-the-way-scared if you're going to back out.
3. The default Senate position, if the story is accurate, supports price controls. That's essentially where it would leave us, if the story is accurate. Hardly Republican leadership in an age of deficits and a deadly status quo.