Though now the GOP says they love Medicare

Four years later, Congress would enact Medicare. At the time a Congressman named Bob Dole would vote against it. Thirty years later, as Senate Majority Leader, he bragged "I was there, fighting the fight, voting against Medicare . . . because we knew it wouldn't work."

That same year the Republicans, led by House Speaker Newt Gingrich, would shut down the government when President Bill Clinton refused to sign a Balanced Budget Bill that called for cuts to Medicare.

Then in 2006, rising Republican star Michael Steele would advocate cutting Medicare:

/>

In 2008, Republican presidential candidate John McCain campaigned on a platform of cutting $1.3 trillion from Medicare and Medicaid over 10 years.

Last month, leading Republican Roy Blunt said "government should have never have gotten in the health care business":

But perhaps Steele and other Republicans are beginning to realize how out of step his defense was with over 40 years of Republican dogma. Because today he said "this single-payer program known as Medicare is a very good example of what we should not have happen with all of our health care."