US: Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan taken to task over Medicare budget threat

Yet barely four days after naming the previously unknown Wisconsin Congressman as his vice-presidential choice, Mr Romney is already fighting off attacks from Democrats that their relationship is a little too cosy.

A new election video from president Barack Obama ties Mr Romney to Mr Ryan’s controversial budget plan that would “effectively end” the Medicare system of healthcare cover for senior citizens. It is a strategy that promises both men a torrid time when they visit Florida, a key swing state with America’s highest proportion of elderly voters, during upcoming campaign stops.

“Seniors in Florida know they can’t afford the cuts to Medicare as proposed in the Romney-Ryan budget,” Mr Obama’s re-election team said in a statement accompanying the video, which features elderly Floridians talking about their fears for the future of the Medicare programme that helped pay for treatment for almost 20 per cent of the state’s residents in 2010.

Attempting to land blows on Mr Romney by linking him to the Ryan plan, the Democratic party says the Republican proposals would slash $700 billion (£447bn) from Medicare and leave the elderly largely left to fend for themselves.

“This extreme plan would turn Medicare into a voucher programme, increasing seniors’ costs by up to $6,350 a year,” the statement said.

“It would also slash education and clean energy funding, along with other middle-class investments critical to growth, while raising taxes on millions of middle-class families to pay for tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.”

It is a theme analysts expect Mr Obama’s camp to keep returning to as the election nears, and one that Mr Romney and Mr Ryan will have to fiercely defend themselves against if they are to win Florida.

The winner in the state will receive 29 electoral college votes, more than 10 per cent of the 270 needed to secure the White House.

“The Republicans need Florida more than the Democrats do and Romney is heavily investing to try to frame the debate differently,” said Dan Smith, professor of political science at the University of Florida.

He said debate over the Ryan plan, “gives both sides ammunition. The question is what can persuade independent voters”.

Mr Romney hopes his choice of Ryan, 42, whose strong conservative views make him a rising star of the Republican Party, will still appeal to senior voters not only in Florida, who at 3.3 million people make up 17.3 per cent of the state’s population, but elsewhere.

Despite his defeat in 2008, Mr Obama’s Republican challenger John McCain was the overwhelming recipient of the senior vote, outscoring his rival 53 per cent to 45 per cent among voters over 65. For the Republicans to keep and build on that vote, Prof Smith said, Mr Romney and Mr Ryan must focus on issues they know will have appeal and will likely sidestep the Medicare issue as much as possible.

“We saw some of that in respect to how Romney handled an appearance in Miami on Monday. He largely avoided the M word,” he said.

“It’s a big gamble for the Romney campaign. Paul Ryan and his ideological compatriots believe that social security and Medicare are no longer the third rail of American politics but they don’t hail from Florida. It’s difficult for them to broach the topic.”

Mr Ryan will be in Florida this weekend for the first time since his nomination and will likely face the same questions as Mr Romney did in Miami.

During that appearance, Mr Romney hit back at the Obama team’s allegations, pointing out that the president’s own healthcare reforms had cut a similar amount from Medicare, even though it would be compensated for by lower premiums.

Mr Romney also repeated that it will be his budget plan, and not Mr Ryan’s, that will be presented to the voters.

But he said: “My plan for Medicare is very similar to his plan, which is, ‘Do not change the programme for current retirees or near-retirees but do not do what the president has done and that is to cut $700bn out of the current programme.”