When Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said in the Republican response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address that "the biggest obstacles to balancing the budget are programs where spending is already locked in," he pulled no punches and pointed directly at Medicare.
[See also: President addresses healthcare in his State of the Union.]
Rubio got personal by explaining that Medicare provided his father with healthcare coverage during a lung cancer battle and helped him "ultimately die with dignity" at the age of 83 and that today, the program provides coverage for his mother.
"I would never support any changes to Medicare that would hurt seniors like my mother," Rubio said. "But anyone who is in favor of leaving Medicare exactly the way it is right now, is in favor of bankrupting it."
And as for the benefits of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that the president touted during his address, Rubio said, consider that the law's requirement that businesses with more than 50 employees provide health insurance has prevented small companies from hiring and, in other cases, laying people off or even restructuring from full-time to part-time employees to remain below that threshold.
Republicans have proposed "a detailed and credible plan that helps save Medicare," Rubio said, and it's a plan that does so without harming the senior citizens the program currently serves.
"Instead of playing politics with Medicare, when is the President going to offer his plan to save it?" Rubio asked. "Tonight would have been a good time for him to do it."