The Hill News

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi denied on Monday that cutting Medicare was on the table in negotiating a deficit reduction compromise.

Earlier on Monday Pelosi (D-Calif.) said that everything should be on the table in terms of coming to a compromise on a deficit reduction deal, and that included Medicare and Social Security.

But in an interview on Bloomberg TV Pelosi qualified that what was on the table was some possible changes to Medicare funding, but cutting Medicare was not negotiable.

"One suggestion we're not open to is the [elimination] of Medicare and that's what the Republicans have put forth in their budget and we do not support that," Pelosi said.


Earlier on Monday in! an interview with CNBC, Pelosi said: 

"I think Medicare is on the table. I think Social Security is probably on its own table, because we have to have it be solvent, it has to be strong, and we have to deal with it in its own mechanism, in my view."

Shortly after the interview the National Republican Congressional Committee sent out an email titled "That's What She Said: Pelosi and Dems Willing to Cut Seniors' Medicare."

The email was one of the latest salvos between Republicans and Democrats over Medicare as negotiable in a deficit reduction plan.
 
Democrats charge that the changes to Medicare in House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) plan effectively eliminate the program for incoming seniors. Republicans argue that Democrats refuse to make the changes to the program necessary to keep it from going bankrupt.

"Democrats are willing to cut Medicare benefits for seniors with no plan to protect them or future ! generations," the NRCC email said.