Dem senator blasts GOP proposals to raise Medicare age

By Elise Viebeck - 03/05/13 10:37 AM ET

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) slammed Republican proposals to raise Medicare's eligibility age as a slap in the face to working-class people.

Addressing a hospitals conference Tuesday, Brown motioned to his own suit and tie and said "people who dress like this — we can retire later."

"The people who are cleaning your hotel room, the people who are serving dinner here … can't work until they're 70 years old," Brown said.

House Republican leaders indicated they may soon back Medicare benefit changes for people 55 years and older in order to balance the federal budget over the next decade.

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) reportedly told colleagues that the eligibility age could go up to 59.

On Tuesday, Brown said the move "doesn't work, in my mind, for the huge portion of Americans" because it merely shifts costs from government to patients.

He said he is still open to some changes, like the possibility of means testing within entitlement programs.

Brown spoke to the Federation of American Hospitals shortly after Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), who blasted President Obama as uninterested in entitlement reform.

For his part, Brown said that "this lurching from one [fiscal] crises to another … none of that happened in this country prior to the Tea Party taking over the House of Representatives in 2010."

"People really don't know what to do to come to an agreement," Brown said.