RSSRomney Takes the Offensive: Obamacare Cuts Medicare by $716 billion … Romney/Ryan Plan Protects Medicare for Today’s Seniors & Strengthens the Plan for the Next Generation
Don’t look now but the Romney-Ryan GOP Presidential ticket has a head of steam and is on the offensive. The latest Romney political ad takes dead aim at Barack Obama’s Obamacare, and charges that the Affordable Care Act “cuts $716 billion” from the entitlement program. What will seniors have to say about Obama taking $716 billion from Medicare to pay for the unaffordable entitlement known as Obamacare? Mitt Romney has stated that he will put the $716 billion back into Medicare.
Romney/Ryan Plan Protects Medicare for Today’s Seniors and Strengthens the Plan for the Next Generation
Some have questioned that Obama really was not cutting $716 billion from Medicare; however, the Washington Post points out a much different story.
That $716 billion figure is one you’ll probably be hearing a lot about during this election cycle. It’s worth understanding where it comes from and what the spending reductions mean for the Medicare program.
First, where it comes from. On July 24, the Congressional Budget Office sent a letter to House Speaker John Boehner, detailing the budget impact of repealing the Affordable Care Act. If Congress overturned the law, “spending for Medicare would increase by an estimated $716 billion over that 2013–2022 period.” [...]
The Medicare Advantage cut gets the most attention, but it only accounts for about a third of the Affordable Care Act’s spending reduction. Another big chunk comes from the hospitals. The health law changed how Medicare calculates what they get reimbursed for various services, slightly lowering their rates over time. Hospitals agreed to these cuts because they knew, at the same time, they would likely see an influx of paying patients with the Affordable Care Act’s insurance expansion.
As reported at The Hill, in an interview with FOX News Britt Hume (VIDEO) … Paul Ryan stated, it was “irrefutable” that the president was “damaging Medicare for current seniors”.
“I joined the Romney ticket. And what Mitt Romney is proposing to do is repeal all of ObamaCare.
I have voted repeatedly in Congress to repeal all of ObamaCare, including this cut of $716 billion to pay for ObamaCare.
“The Obama campaign thinks it’s an achievement that they raided Medicare to pay for ObamaCare,” said the vice-presidential pick.
Paul Ryan doubled down on Romney campaign attacks on President Obama’s handling of Medicare, saying Tuesday it was “irrefutable” that the president was “damaging Medicare for current seniors” in his first solo interview since being named the GOP’s vice presidential nominee.
And for those who still think that Obama did not himself understand that he was making cuts to Medicare, watch the following video from 2009 where ABC’s Jake Tapper asks whether 1/3 of the cuts from Medicare and Obama agrees.
Posted August 15, 2012 by Scared Monkeys 2012 Elections, Healthcare, Mitt Romney - Paul Ryan 2012, Obamacare, Obamanation, Presidential Election, You Tube - VIDEO | 3 comments |
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3 Responses to “Romney Takes the Offensive: Obamacare Cuts Medicare by $716 billion … Romney/Ryan Plan Protects Medicare for Today’s Seniors & Strengthens the Plan for the Next Generation”
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First, the exact response from the CBO: “If Congress overturned the law, “spending for Medicare would increase by an estimated $716 billion over that 2013–2022 period.” [...]” uses language that is not actually stating that ACA cut $716B from the Medicare budget (If that was their intent, I expect that would be specifically stated.) But I’m not trying to parse language here, and will assume the CBO implies the $716B budget cut.
However, in accepting that figure, I think the facts of this story are incomplete. Although the linked WaPo article includes the budget cut, it’s conclusion of the impact of the cut is quite clear. As it states in the last paragraph:
“It’s worth noting that there’s one area these cuts don’t touch: Medicare benefits. The Affordable Care Act rolls back payment rates for hospitals and insurers. It does not, however, change the basket of benefits that patients have access to. And, as Ezra pointed out earlier today, the Ryan budget would keep these cuts in place.”
I’ve heard the nature of the budget cuts referred to as falling into the oft-quoted category of “reducing waste, fraud, and abuse.” What puzzles me is why this would be of any concern, and not worthy of praise. The way this story has found it’s way into the media, as a whole, is as an alarmist message, attempting to scare seniors their health care is under attack.
Isn’t that just (inaccurate) scare tactics for (crass) political purposes?
[...] ticket and a negative for Obama. However, Obama and Obamacare has been pounded by the GOP that Obama took $716 billion from Medicare to fund Obamacare. Share [...]
Very interesting admission from Ryan on his budget (http://goo.gl/G5NgH):
“And while he has tried to avoid diving into the specifics of his Medicare plan, a reporter pushed him to explain an apparent contradiction during an impromptu lunch meeting in Ohio.
In the interview, Ryan said he never would have included a $700 billion Medicare cut in his budget if Obama hadn’t done it first.”
Such a flimsy backbone; he included the cuts because Obama made him do it!!!!!! How stupid does he think the public is? BTW, I actually think these cuts are good, reducing waste, not benefits; but this factor is about Ryan’s hypocrisy and truth avoidance.
The article also mentions another Ryan lie:
“He reversed course on Thursday and acknowledged lobbying the government for stimulus money after twice denying he had done so. The admission came only after the release of letters, with his signature, asking for millions of the program’s dollars on behalf of two companies in his home state.”