“We want this fight,” blared a Monday email from the National Republican Congressional Committee, pushing back on the idea that Democrats are salivating at the prospect of running against Paul Ryan’s budget in races up and down the ballot.
But not every Republican candidate appears to have gotten the memo.
Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, who is locked in an incredibly tight race with Democrat Elizabeth Warren, detailed his opposition to Ryan’s 2011 proposal to privatize Medicare in a Politico op-ed: “While I applaud Ryan for getting the conversation started, I cannot support his specific plan — and therefore will vote ‘no’ on his budget.” Instead of drastically changing Medicare in a manner that would impact seniors, Brown said the focus should be on making improvements to the existing program.
Brown’s camp wouldn’t quite give a direct answer on Ryan Monday. Brown’s spokesman, Colin Reed, told TPM in a statement:
There is only one candidate in this race who wants to gut Medicare, and that’s professor Warren. She supports cutting more than $700 billion from current Medicare beneficiaries and raising Medicare taxes by $317 billion in order to pay for the new federal health care bill. That’s wrong. Scott Brown believes we shouldn’t make changes to Medicare that affect current seniors.
Montana Rep. Denny Rehberg is running against Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, Rehberg was in fact one of only four Republicans to vote against the Ryan plan in 2011 — which the state GOP touted in an ad this past June, as an example of the congressman’s independence from his party: “And Rehberg refused to support a Republican budget plan that could harm the Medicare program so many of Montana’s seniors rely on.”
In his statement this weekend on Ryan’s selection, Rehberg again emphasized he doesn’t agree with Ryan on everything.
“Congressman Ryan is a public servant of the highest order, and I appreciate his character, intelligence, and creativity, not only on the vast majority of issues on which we agree — like controlling government spending, developing our natural resources, and providing tax relief for families and job creators — but also on the few occasions where we haven’t.”
Connecticut Republican Linda McMahon, who is running for the open Senate seat, also backed away from Ryan. “Linda McMahon will never support a budget that cuts Medicare,” campaign manager Corry Bliss told the Connecticut Mirror.
The Ryan budget could also pose a complication in the New Mexico Senate race — where former Republican Rep. Heather Wilson voiced skepticism of the plan just last week, before Romney officially announced his vice presidential pick, in an interview with the Albuquerque Journal.
“It’s been a while since I looked at it,” Wilson said. “I think we need to look forward. I didn’t agree with everything in the Ryan plan. I was concerned about some of his approaches to Medicare and I’m always very careful and cautious about programs that are vital to New Mexico.”
In a statement after the Ryan pick, Wilson alluded to some sort of disagreement — and said she hopes to see Romney’s plan:
“Paul Ryan and I served together and I have always found him to be decent, honest and smart. I admire his willingness to put forth bold ideas on the biggest issues facing our nation, even if I don’t always agree with him. I look forward to seeing Gov. Romney’s plan to address these very important issues.”
In 2011, Democrat Kathy Hochul won a special House election in New York, flipping the seat of GOP Rep. Chris Lee, who had resigned — a win that was widely considered a backlash against the recently unveiled Ryan plan.
This time around Hochul’s Republican opponent, former Erie County Executive Chris Collins, is avoiding the issue. Collins refused to comment on the Ryan budget in the wake of Romney’s selection.
“I’m not going to get into a discussion now about a budget that may be passed next year with a new president and new Congress,” Collins told the Buffalo News. “I’m not going to go back and relive any proposal in the past because they are in the past. All I’m saying is that I’ll never support cuts to Medicare for current seniors or anyone close to retirement age, including Medicare Advantage, which my opponent has actually voted to cut.”
And in Romney’s home state of Massachusetts, former state Sen. Richard Tisei, who is trying to unseat Democratic Rep. John Tierney, is straddling the issue — touting the Ryan budget and the Simpson-Bowles debt proposals as good starting points.
“Do I agree with everything in the Ryan plan? No. Do I agree with everything in Simpson-Bowles? No,” Tisei told Boston’s WBUR. “But they’re both serious plans. They’re the only plans that are on the table right now that are legitimate to move the country forward.”
