Wading through the $700 billion from Medicare Attack
Last edited Thu Aug 16, 2012, 09:11 AM - Edit history (2)
I've noticed that it is hard to cleanly counter Romney's outrageous "Obama slashed Medicare" line. The problem is that Romney's claim is false in several different ways, so it is hard to counter in a punchy way.
Obamacare does reduce the Medicare budget by $716 billion over ten years. It does not reduce benefits, however. It actually adds benefits, like closing the prescription donut hole. If Obamacare was bad for people on Medicare then AARP would not have endorsed it. (Which it did.)
The Ryan budget, which every Republican voted for and which Romney said he would have voted for "slashes" the same $700 billion from Medicare. That $700 billion is a no-brainer... everyone who has looked at Medicare says "this particular $700 billion is a pure waste of money."
So Romney and his running mate support the exact same cuts Romney is complaining about.
So Romney has added a wrinkle to make his stump speech less false. Now when he says Obama "slashed" that $700 billion he adds, "to funnel the money into a risky, untested, government take-over of health care." See... though Romney supported the cuts, he doesn't approve of what the money was used for. What Romney and Ryan supported diverted that $700 billion to tax cuts for the rich, so there is a difference.
Obamacare it is not risky and untested. It has been tested... in Massachusetts. It is just Romney-care, and we know from the MA example that it works.
And saying that cuts in a government healthcare program were funneled into a government healthcare program isn't much of a complaint.
Taken altogether, it is a complex nest of lies wrapped in one literal truth, and that makes it hard to counter.
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