Ryan addresses a packed house in Kenosha, Wis., Tuesday. Overflow crowds for Ryan town halls

KENOSHA, Wis. — Record crowds of supporters and opponents flooded town hall meetings throughout southeastern Wisconsin on Tuesday to hear Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) defend his plan to trim government spending — including controversial changes to the Medicare program.

In the district’s Democratic stronghold of Kenosha, at least 200 people were left outside once the 300-seat auditorium filled to capacity. The people in the crowd largely opposed the Ryan plan, holding signs such as “RyanCare = Dying Bare,” “Leave Medicare Alone” or simply, “Save Medicare!”


While Ryan spoke inside, the group rallied outside and ironically played Shania Twain’s “Ka-Ching,” which criticizes society’s obsession with money. As Ryan was leaving, they chanted, “Tax the rich, too!”

At four town hall meetings throughout Ryan’s district Tuesday, some constituents applauded him for his courage to tackle economic problems but others expressed concern about what the Medicare changes would do — to themselves or their grandchildren.

“The problem is, under your program, when you want to give me X amount of dollars, with the insurance companies, the way they operate ... if I can’t afford insurance, then where am I going to be?” asked one 62-year-old woman with a history of cancer who worried she wouldn't qualify for private insurance coverage under Ryan's plan.

George Kauffman, an 80-year-old man from Kenosha, didn’t make it into Ryan’s town hall meeting before capacity was reached. The former auto union worker and then small-business owner said he is skeptical about Ryan’s promise that Medicare benefits for those 55 and older won’t change.

“When you let your foot in the door, it’s easy to adjust things later,” he told POLITICO.

The attention is much more than Ryan has been used to. Before the Kenosha meeting, the dozen “regulars” at the Lake Geneva, Wis., town hall meeting were shocked to see well more than 100 people turn out. Down the road in Paddock Lake, the meeting room reached capacity of 75 people before it was due to start and several constituents and reporters were left outside.

Ryan told the crowds that it’s a larger turnout than he saw during the infamous health care town halls during summer 2009.

Using a PowerPoint presentation that he said he prepared himself, Ryan pushed back on the criticism to his budget plan largely by pitting it against President Barack Obama’s health care reform law and budget proposal, which calls for strengthening the Independent Payment Advisory Board.

Ryan said the Republican plan would keep benefits the same for those over 55 and strengthen the program for the future.

“The president, on the other hand, kind of does the opposite,” he told a crowd of about 100 people at a morning town hall in Lake Geneva. “His new health care law … puts a board in charge of cutting costs in Medicare.”

Throughout the day, Ryan repeatedly tried to draw a stark line between his plan and the IPAB. He said the board would “automatically put price controls in Medicare” and “diminish the quality of care for seniors.”

The Medicare piece of the Republican budget proposal is among the most controversial. Several other House Republicans have taken heat at similar town hall meetings for their vote.

Ryan dismissed the criticism while talking with reporters outside of one meeting. He chalked it up simply to Democrats twisting his plan around.

“Scaring seniors comes out every two years,” he said. ‘The challenge we have is getting through the demagoguery.”

And Ryan supporters also stepped up to thank him for tackling the budget.

“What you’re doing requires a great deal of moral courage,” William Keough, a 68-year-old from Salem, Wis., told Ryan. “Your countrymen recognize that.”

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 5:30 p.m. on April 26, 2011.