Republican U-S Senate candidate Tommy Thompson says claims that he plans to get rid of Medicare and Medicaid are an “absolute lie.”
On a video that surfaced this week, Thompson is shown speaking to a Tea Party group about doing away with Medicare and Medicaid. In the excerpt from a speech in June, Thompson asks “who better than me, that’s already finished one of the entitlement programs, to come up with programs that do away with Medicaid and Medicare?”
The former governor says the video only shows a portion of his comments and leaves out key information. Speaking in Green Bay Thursday, Thompson called claims from Democrats that he wants to eliminate the program a “falsehood.” He says he wants Medicare to survive and for everyone on it or going on it in the future to continue to be covered.
Thompson says he just wants to make changes to a system that’s facing serious financial problems by giving new enrollees after 2020 a choice in how they receive benefits. The Republican’s plan would create a system that would give individuals a subsidy to purchase health insurance in a competitive market.
Thompson faces Democratic Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin in the November election.
AUDIO: Andrew Beckett reports (1:10)
Audio courtesy Mike Kemmeter, WHBY
