In their first major swipe at Newt Gingrich, the Mitt Romney campaign is offering a “contrast” between the two candidates’ on Paul Ryan’s Medicare plan, which Gingrich derided as “right wing social engineering.”
“That was just inaccurate,” ex-Sen. Jim Talent said. “The Speaker’s remarks just came from nowhere. Paul Ryan was completely blindsided, that’s why he said ‘With allies like this, who needs enemies on the left?’”
Here’s the funny thing: Gingrich and Romney actually have similar positions on Medicare, neither of which is Ryan’s plan. Both of them ended up proposing creating a premium support program in which seniors purchase private health insurance a la Ryan, but they both crucially said they’d keep traditional Medicare as an option alongside the system — something Ryan, very pointedly, would not do.
