Extreme, Tea Party-Based GOP Platform Includes Ryan/Brian Plan to Essentially End Medicare, Raise Health Care Costs for Seniors

Press Release

Today, the Scott Peters for Congress campaign urged seniors in the newly drawn 52nd Congressional District to take a hard look at the Republican Party's extremist, Tea Party-driven national platform. Congressman Brian Bilbray is in Tampa to support the Republican National Convention proceedings, which today included formal adoption of a platform that makes the kind of overhaul in the Ryan/Brian plan to end Medicare as we know it an official tenet of the Republican Party.

"The Ryan/Brian plan will essentially end Medicare," said Peters Communications Director MaryAnne Pintar. "It steals away from seniors the guaranteed benefit of Medicare they've earned over a lifetime of hard work, by turning it into a voucher system that raises health care costs for seniors by more than $6,000 per year," she said.

"We must strengthen Medicare in order to preserve it for tomorrow's seniors," said Peters. "We can and must protect and preserve the Medicare guarantee and still reduce costs by making administration and overhead more efficient; that will be my focus," he said. He added that, as a nation, we must work toward a health care system that emphasizes wellness and incentivizes prevention, and away from one that focuses on sick care and expensive procedures.

The GOP platform adopted today also rejects a woman's right to choose, and officially adopts Rep. Todd Akin's no-choice-with-no-exceptions position on abortion, even in the case of rape or incest. Over the past five years, Bilbray has voted with Akin over 90% of the time.

This year's platform is viewed by many as one the most extreme in recent history. In fact, in a recent editorial published in theWashington Times, Phyllis Schafly the national chairperson of the ultra-conservative Eagle Forum, praised it as the party's "best yet." Bilbray was a featured speaker at the local chapter of the Eagle Forum last year.

In sharp contrast, "Scott Peters is 100 percent committed to protecting and preserving Medicare for our seniors because he knows they've earned it and are counting on it," said Pintar. "Scott knows, for many of our seniors, their Medicare benefit means the difference between making ends meet and poverty," she added.

Peters is endorsed by Planned Parenthood. The organization gave him a 100% rating for his unwavering commitment to standing up for women's rights.

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