“Paul Ryan warns Florida seniors of Medicare rationing”

“Standing in front of a new Romney campaign banner that read “Protect & strengthen Medicare,” Ryan pressed his case for overhauling the healthcare program for seniors and the disabled. Romney and Ryan want to give future seniors the option of using a government subsidy to shop for private health insurance, instead of enrolling in the traditional government program. Obama has said the voucher plan could cost seniors $6,400 a year.

Ryan, joined onstage by his 78-year-old mother, said the president’s 2010 healthcare law threatens the healthcare of current seniors because it authorizes the creation of a panel of experts with authority to recommend reductions in out-of-control Medicare spending.

Obama “puts a board of 15 unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats in charge of Medicare who are required to cut Medicare in ways that will lead to denied care for current seniors,” said Ryan, 42, who was carrying the day’s public campaign duties while Romney attended private fundraising events on the Massachusetts vacation retreats of Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket and Cape Cod.

Ryan said that if elected, he and Romney “will restore the promise of this program, and we will make sure that this board of bureaucrats will not mess with my mom’s healthcare or your mom’s healthcare.””