But the GOP Medicare argument is entirely an appeal to the narrow self interest of current Medicare beneficiaries by raising the fear that broader coverage will be paid for by some kind of curtailment of Medicare benefits. The politically relevant point is simply, "this is yours, and they want to take some of it away from you." Whether the "yours" is a tax funded program or something else may be relevant at some philosophical level -- having created Medicare, Congress has the power to modify it as it sees fit. But the long time recipients of any kind of government payout tend to view it as a vested right, and it is the defense of that so-called right to which the Republicans are appealing. Telling Medicare beneficiaries that they have no or less more right to the current level of coverage than anyone else is legally true, but it as politically irrelevant as telling Iowans that they have no right to farm subsidies or teachers that they have no right to tenure.