By NAFTALI BENDAVID And JONATHAN WEISMAN
: Amy Merrick and Laura Meckler contributed to this article.
Newt Gingrich's dismissal of the House Republican plan to overhaul Medicare provoked a rebuttal from the proposal's author, Rep. Paul Ryan, highlighting a split in the party over how hard to push a priority for the House GOP majority.
On Monday, Mr. Ryan (R., Wis.), hit back at Mr. Gingrich's comments. "With allies like that, who needs the left?" Mr. Ryan said on the Laura Ingraham Show, a radio program.
Mr. Ryan's plan would turn Medicare into an insurance premium support system for those currently under 55. When beneficiaries become Medicare-eligible, the government would pay private insurers a set amount toward their health policies, rather than paying directly for their health care.
Mr. Gingrich, a GOP presidential contender and former House speaker, called the plan "right-wing social engineering" Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." Cautioning against "radical change," he said seniors should be encouraged to move voluntarily to a new Medicare system.
Mr. Ryan on Monday said of the House GOP plan: "Hardly is that social engineering or radical. What's radical is kicking the can down the road."
The dispute comes as lawmakers are sorting through the political ramifications of Mr. Ryan's plan, which the House approved in April mostly along party lines. A Democratic candidate in a special House election in New York is making a strong showing in a Republican district in part by attacking the Medicare plan. House GOP freshman are asking President Barack Obama to intervene and defuse the tone on Medicare.
When a group of Senate Republicans introduced their budget plan last week, they pointedly omitted the House GOP Medicare changes.
Mr. Gingrich on Monday sought to reframe his position in another controversy he had created on Sunday, posting a brief video on his website stating that he opposed a federal mandate that individuals buy insurance.
On Sunday, Mr. Gingrich had said people should be required to buy health insurance, a key element of President Barack Obama's health law that is anathema to many conservatives. He criticized those who don't buy insurance but then use health services and don't pay the bill, spreading costs through the system. "All of us have a responsibility to help pay for health care," he said.
In his video statement on Monday, Mr. Gingrich said: "I am against any effort to impose a federal mandate on anyone because it is fundamentally wrong and I believe unconstitutional." In a Wall Street Journal interview Sunday, Mr. Gingrich said he would like to see the mandate implemented at the state level.
"It's absolutely moved the needle in the political landscape," said Rep. Steve Israel (D., N.Y.), who heads the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, noting that all but four House Republicans voted for Mr. Ryan's plan last month.
"Whenever you get a far-right Republican like Newt Gingrich saying House Republicans are too far to the right, we will remind people of that." The DCCC, which coordinates the Democratic House races, said Monday it is launching automated phone calls in 20 districts saying that people between 44 and 54 have already paid into Medicare for years and wouldn't get all the benefits they deserve under Mr. Ryan's plan.
The Gingrich broadside also could undercut the GOP bargaining position in debt-cutting talks being led by Vice President Joseph Biden. The government hit its debt limit of $14.29 trillion Monday, and lawmakers and the administration are working to craft a deficit-cutting plan that would be linked to an increase in the legal borrowing limit.
Republicans say Mr. Ryan's Medicare plan should be part of those talks, though earlier this month they seemed to back away from that insistence before reaffirming it. A prominent Republican like Mr. Gingrich slamming the plan could hurt that position.
Republicans are counter-attacking by citing a 15-member panel, part of the new federal health law, that will make cost-cutting decisions regarding Medicare.
"Our plan is to give seniors the power to deny business to inefficient providers," Mr. Ryan said, defending his plan Monday at the Economic Club of Chicago. "Their plan is to give government the power to deny care to seniors."
The GOP also is running ads in the district of Rep. Jerry McNerney (D., Calif.) with a similar theme. "McNerney and President Barack Obama's Medicare plan empowers bureaucrats to interfere with doctors, risking seniors' access to treatment," the ad says.
McNerney spokeswoman Sarah Hersh responded, "This misleading attack is nothing more than a smoke-and-mirrors attempt to distract from their own plan to end Medicare as we know it."
In upstate New York, Democrat Kathy Hochul is running strongly against Republican Jane Corwin in the race to succeed former GOP Rep. Chris Lee. The race is complicated by a third-party candidate, Jack Davis. But if Ms. Hochul wins the May 24 special election, the race could be seen as exposing a Republican vulnerability, potentially boosting Democratic fundraising and shaping both parties' message for 2012.
The debate has ratcheted up the pressure on other GOP White House hopefuls to come out more clearly for or against Mr. Ryan's Medicare plan. Mr. Gingrich's top rivals for the Republican nomination held their fire Monday, in part because they have avoided taking a firm position on the Ryan Medicare plan.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney recently lauded Mr. Ryan's plan for keeping Medicare solvent and injecting market forces. But he stopped short of endorsing it, saying he would release his own Medicare plan that shares Mr. Ryan's objectives but not its particulars.
Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty told reporters Friday he could support a system like Mr. Ryan's, but only as a voluntary option for seniors who could still choose traditional Medicare.
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, one of the few White House hopefuls to embrace the House Republican plan, criticized Mr. Gingrich's comments, saying Mr. Ryan's plan was "the first serious step by our new Congress to empower future seniors with more choices while at the same time keeping the Medicare system solvent."
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