Newt Gingrich Says Scott Brown in Favor of ‘Right-wing Social Engineering

Newt Gingrich and the Massachusetts delegation almost always differ on the issues. This weekend was no different, when two sides clashed: Senator Scott Brown endorsed Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s proposed budget; Newt Gingrich called the Brown-endorsed Ryan budget plan that cuts Medicare and virtually eliminates Medicaid “too extreme.”

Wait, what?

For the people of Massachusetts, the Ryan budget can bring dire consequences if passed, harming Massachusetts’ most vulnerable. This budget could force nearly 30,000 Massachusetts residents off Medicaid and shift the costs of health care to state government during this fiscal crisis, slashing health benefits in Massachusetts by up to $36.3 billion.

First, as David reported on the homepage, Scott Brown signaled that he’d actually vote to end Medicare to make room for more bonus tax cuts for the wealthy. In remarks to the Greater Newburyport Chamber of Commerce & Industry’s annual luncheon, at the Black Swan Country Club in Georgetown:

Brown discussed the ongoing budget deliberations in similar terms, suggesting the process could be streamlined to greater effect.

“The leaders will bring forward (Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s) budget, and I will vote for it.” (via the Newburyport Daily News, 5/14/11)

Brown had earlier been even more emphatic, saying:

Finally we had Congressman Ryan come forth with a budget proposal, thank God, because we haven’t had one in a couple years and that now has forced the debate and forced the President actually to come forth with his budget proposal.

Thank God? Thank God for what, exactly? This budget – the one that eviscerates Medicare, while adding trillions in bonus tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans?

And what does Newt Gingrich say about the Ryan Medicare plan that Scott Brown supports? Glad you asked.

Newt Gingrich slammed the House GOP budget on Meet The Press this morning, telling interviewer David Gregory that replacing Medicare with a voucher system was too “radical” an approach. His words were by far the harshest of any major presidential candidate towards Paul Ryan’s proposal on entitlements.

“I don’t think right-wing social engineering is any more desirable than left-wing social engineering,” Gingrich said, calling the plan “too big a jump” for the country. “I don’t think imposing radical change from the right or the left is a very good way for a free society to operate.”

Newt Gingrich just said that Scott Brown was in favor of right-wing social engineering – that the plan Scott Brown supports is “too radical.” Later, Newt’s spokesfolks tried to “frame” his comments, but they didn’t take it back: the Ryan Medicare plan is right-wing social engineering at its most radical.

It has been clear from the beginning that Paul Ryan’s budget is a complete fraud, a giveaway to the powerful at the expense of society’s most vulnerable that doesn’t even reduce the deficit. It says volumes about Scott Brown that he’d support this plan. He likes to talk about his tough past, but his actions, once again, speak so much more clearly than his headline-grabbing words.