Gingrich Defends Ryan Plan

Politico reports:

Newt Gingrich is resurfacing in the battle over Medicare, but this time on Rep. Paul Ryan’s side.

The former House speaker sent a letter to members of Congress Wednesday morning claiming that “Democrats and their allies in the elite media are determined to divide us and lie about of efforts to save both Medicare and America from fiscal collapse.”

“Paul Ryan and the House Republicans are trying to save Medicare in a period of enormous economic and fiscal difficulties,” Gingrich wrote to lawmakers after the GOP suffered a loss in a special election in upstate New York Tuesday night. “THE ROAD AHEAD: CHEERFULLY KEEP TELLING THE TRUTH.”

The letter is signed, “your friend, Newt.”

Of course, last week Gingrich was hardly House Republicans’ friends. He called Ryan’s plan “right-wing social engineering,” earning scorn from his former colleagues on Capitol Hill, eventually having to walk the plan back. Ryan this morning on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” said that “perhaps” Gingrich’s comments were not helpful in the race in upstate New York.

His letter Wednesday morning shows him siding the congressional Republicans, and firmly against Democrats. He calls the attacks of Ryan’s plans “‘Mediscare 3,’ a sequel to two bad failures” — he’s referring to Jimmy Carter’s 1980 Medicare attacks on Ronald Reagan, and in 1995, when Democrats used it against Gingrich and his House Republicans.