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Republicans on Capitol Hill are giving up on what might be their last best chance to overhaul Medicare, just as they’re losing their leading champion on the issue, House Speaker Paul Ryan. The quiet surrender on a subject that’s energized GOP fiscal hawks for the better part of a decade comes as new projections show Medicare’s trust fund in its worst shape since the recession, partly because of Republicans’ other chief obsession: their sweeping tax cuts The sudden silence on entitlements is an awkward one for congressional Republicans, who spent much of the Obama administration calling for major reforms and new limits on spending. Without that, they warned, Democrats’ agenda would blow up the deficit and bankrupt Medicare, a program that serves nearly 60 million seniors and people with disabilities. (Politico by Adam Cancryn and Sarah Ferris)        
Source: The Commonwealth Fund: Publications - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: research