Clinton supports Medicare reform.

Many Americans would be a lot happier if the current administration was ‘a third term for Clinton’ rather than the ‘second term for Carter’ or worse that it seems to be. Clinton was not an ideologue and had the intellectual integrity that allowed him to canvas and consider contrarian views. I reported here some time ago on the Clinton/Cain exchange on healthcare.

In the wake of the Republican loss in the NY special election there is a perception that it was entirely due to a reaction to the Ryan plan for reform of Medicare. A traditionally red district was lost by 4%, however a fake Tea Party candidate who has always been a Democrat took 9%.

Ryan approached Clinton, who stated that he was glad they won the race but hoped Democrats did not use it as an excuse to do nothing. Ryan told Clinton he’s concerned the election results will freeze action on spending. He asked Clinton for help:

This clip was posted by a leftie on YouTube, (the ABC clip is slow loading)

“My guess is it’s going to sink into paralysis is what’s going to happen. And you know the math. It’s just, I mean, we knew we were putting ourselves out there. You gotta start this. You gotta get out there. You gotta get this thing moving,” Ryan said.
Clinton told Ryan that if he ever wanted to talk about it, he should “give me a call.” Ryan said he would.

Clinton seems to be genuine in this given his statement reported by NYT:

“You shouldn’t draw the conclusion that the New York race means that nobody can do anything to slow the rate of Medicare costs. I just don’t agree with that,” Mr. Clinton said at a budget forum sponsored by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. Instead, he said, “you should draw the conclusion that the people made a judgment that the proposal in the Republican budget is not the right one. I agree with that.”
But Mr. Clinton said he feared that Democrats would conclude “that we shouldn’t do anything.”

“I completely disagree with that,” he said. “I think there are a lot of things we can do to bring down Medicare costs.”

Indeed, liberal groups and liberal Democrats in Congress were claiming validation on Wednesday of their position against negotiating a deficit-reduction deal with Republicans that would touch major entitlement-benefit programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, whose long-term costs are major drivers of future debt projections. They say the party should make the issues a rallying cry for the 2012 elections and use them to potentially reclaim the House majority they lost last fall.