Reversing Obama Medicare cuts may backfire on Romney by speeding up program's insolvency

[EarlG]

GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney's new promise to restore the Medicare cuts made by President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law could backfire if he’s elected.

The reason: Obama's cuts also extended the life of Medicare's giant trust fund. By repealing them, Romney would move the program's insolvency eight years closer, toward the end of what would be his first term in office.

(snip)

But Obama's cuts were not directly aimed at Medicare's 48 million beneficiaries; instead they affect hospitals, insurers, nursing homes, drug companies and other service providers. Simply undoing the cuts would restore higher payments to those service providers. And that would cause Medicare to spend money faster.

"The fact of the matter is, what Romney is proposing now is to roll all that back, which would mean that Medicare would reach insolvency eight years earlier, which would mean that seniors would lose benefits," David Axelrod, a senior political adviser to Obama, said Thursday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/reversing-obama-medicare-cuts-may-backfire-on-romney-by-speeding-up-programs-insolvency/2012/08/16/87ad2cb0-e76e-11e1-9739-eef99c5fb285_story.html

[Martin Eden]

1. Insolvency is not a "backfire" ... it's the GOAL.

Never forget the Norquist strategy of shrinking government down to a size that can be drowned in a bathtub.

The other thing to remember is they can't do this without huge budget deficits that ultimately convince enough voters that we simply can't afford such programs anymore.

Tax cuts for wealthy individuals and corporations serve the dual purpose of rewarding their real constituents and destroying the New Deal & Great Society.

[nobodyspecial]

5. Yep!

When they do something to screw the "little people," it's intentional, not a mistake. Or, rather, they just don't give it a second thought if it means more money or power for them.

[ErikJ]

2. A bumpersticker needed in reply to GOP $700 Billion cut lie.

[underpants]

3. Even in 2024 Medicare will still pay 90% of what it pays now. For the neext 75 years it will pay 83%

and that is IF we do nothing to tweek it

[cthulu2016]

4. For Mittens that's a feature, not a bug.

[Ruby the Liberal]

6. Okay, now how do we get that down to a bumper sticker?

Stephanie Cutter's video was great, but its still 3 minutes.

We need to distill this to a talking point for canvassing.