Clinton, Demos Fete Medicare

President Clinton joined congressional Democrats and hundreds of senior citizens for a 30th birthday rally for Medicare on Capitol Hill Tuesday, attacking Republican plans to cut growth in the program and vowing not to “let the government mess with your Medicare.”

But the reality behind the political oratory was that most of the Democrats who surrounded Clinton in the caucus room of the Cannon House Office Building bitterly oppose his own plan for trimming growth in Medicare spending - albeit more slowly than the Republicans and without reducing benefits to individuals. Clinton barely acknowledged that fact.

“We must be committed to reducing medical cost inflation and stabilizing the Medicare trust fund through genuine reforms, not by destroying Medicare and hurting the people who are on it,” Clinton told the group, which included several members of Congress who voted to pass Medicare in 1965. “We must not balance the budget by cutting Medicare to older Americans.”