On Wednesday, the Washington Post suggested that, despite voting to overwhelmingly approve Rep. Paul Ryan‘s (R-WI) budget just last month, Republicans may have seen the political writing on the wall and are now slowly backing away from one of the plan’s most unpopular provisions: transforming Medicare from a guaranteed benefit into a “premium support” voucher for future retirees. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) still promised that Republicans would “press for all the provisions in the Ryan proposal” in their negotiations with Democrats and insisted that “the starting point is the Ryan budget.” But he also hinted that the party could be open to taking the Medicare changes off the table. “Cantor said negotiators could avoid the ‘big three,'” which Democrats have vowed to defend, by focusing on changes in other areas. “If we can come to some agreement [and] act to effect those savings now, this year, it will yield a lot of savings in subsequent years,” he said. As one GOP strategist put it to the Los Angeles Times, “Why keep pushing something if it’s political kryptonite and it’s not going anywhere anyway?” The GOP has attempted to paper over these disagreements, releasing multiple statements reaffirming their commitment to the GOP budget, but the discomfort among its ranks and the public continues to grow.

NO HEARINGS: On Thursday, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI) told reporters that he was not planning on holding any hearings about Ryan’s proposal. “I’m not really interested in just laying down more markers,” said Camp, acknowledging that Ryan’s plan to give “premium support” vouchers to future Medicare retirees was a non-starter. “I’d rather have the committee working with the Senate and the president, focusing on savings and reforms that can be signed into law.” “I don’t think we can afford to wait,” he added, “I think we needed to make progress now.” In the Senate, Susan Collins (R-ME) is the only Republican senator to openly oppose Ryan’s plan, but a growing number of Republicans are also expressing doubts about the program. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) told Talking Points Memo that while he would vote for Ryan’s proposal, “there are other proposals that deserve serious consideration and I’m waiting to see what those are and I might vote for those as well,” he said. Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) agreed, saying, “There is a discussion of two or three different alternatives being offered…some will be different on Medicare, others will have balance sooner.”

RAUCOUS TOWN HALLS: In the past two weeks, as congressmen went back to hold town halls in their districts, a major constituent backlash ensued against the Medicare plan and other aspects of the GOP budget. Constituents booed Ryan for arguing that the tax breaks for the richest Americans should expire. Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL) faced a barrage of questions from outraged constituents about the GOP plan to privatize Medicare, and Rep. Chris Gibson (R-NY) confronted the ire of constituents who were upset about tax dodging by some of the nation’s largest corporations. Given this backlash, it’s understandable why House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has repeatedly said that he is not wedded to Ryan’s plan and prospective GOP presidential candidates are remaining weary. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich has said he would back a slightly more moderate version of Ryan’s Medicare proposal, and former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty (R) is refusing to explicitly endorse the Medicare plan. In fact, the GOP budget may even be putting former “Craigslist Congressman” Christopher Lee’s (R-NY) seat in play. GOP candidate Jane Corwin has vigorously defended the Ryan proposal, only to see herself lose ground to Democratic challenger Kathy Hoschul — a critic of the plan. “Ms. Hochul’s message seems to strike a chord in the district, where the race has become much closer than experts in either party had expected,” the New York Times reported. “A recent Siena College poll of likely voters, for example, indicated that Ms. Corwin and Ms. Hochul are in a tight race. Ms. Corwin leads by only five points, within the poll’s margin of error.” New polling has found the race has tightened further.

PUBLIC OPPOSITION GROWS: The GOP’s effort to present itself as eager to compromise with Democrats represents a change in tone and a departure from how Ryan himself has characterized the budget in town halls across Wisconsin and to national audiences. Speaking to ABC’s Christiane Amanpour last week, Ryan said that if Republicans don’t push boldly forward with his proposal, they deserve to be voted out of office. “Look, literally, Christiane, if all we fear about is our political careers, then we have no business having these jobs. If you want to be good at these jobs, you’ve got to be willing to lose the job.” And while Ryan did find a good deal of support at many of his town hall meetings, the Congressman was also routinely challenged by his constituents on his plan to lower tax cuts for the rich and transform Medicare into a “premium support” system in which seniors received a pre-determined sum of dollars to purchase health coverage from private insurers. Wisconsinites pressed Ryan on why the money used to extend the Bush tax cuts wasn’t being applied to the deficit, why their children would not receive the same guaranteed Medicare benefits they’ve enjoyed, and why the government’s “premium support” did not keep up with medical inflation. A recent Quinnipiac University poll found that this attitude is reflective of the national mood. “More than twice as many voters oppose efforts to change Medicare than those who favor limiting benefits,” the poll found. Even after being told that told that “Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid and defense comprise 60 percent of the federal budget,” 70 percent of voters said they were against reducing benefits while just 27 percent supported it.