More Hypocrisy from GOP on Medicare Cuts

Jul 10, 2012

 

House Republicans are once again on the floor today trying to repeal the patient protections and affordable health insurance provided by the Affordable Care Act.  Their campaign of disinformation reaches new heights when they hit the reform legislation for including $500 billion in Medicare savings, while conveniently ignoring the fact that the Republican budget includes the exact same savings.  The Affordable Care Act achieves these savings by cutting waste and it reinvests some of these savings back into Medicare by improving benefits – like closing the Part-D prescription drug donut hole and eliminating co-pays for preventive services.  The Republican budget, by contrast, not only drops the Medicare benefit improvements, but also ends the Medicare guarantee and shifts the burden of increasing costs onto seniors. Unfortunately, it's just more of the same hypocrisy from the GOP on Medicare.

NY Times: "‘Obamacare cuts Medicare — cuts Medicare — by approximately $500 billion,' Mr. Romney has told audiences. That is a reprise of Republicans' mantra of the 2010 midterm elections, which gave them big gains at both the state and federal levels and a majority in the House. Yet the message conflicts not only with their past complaint that Democrats opposed reining in Medicare spending, but also with the fact that House Republicans have voted twice since 2010 for the same 10-year, $500 billion savings in supporting Mr. Ryan's annual budgets." [7/6/2012]

Bloomberg: "What's more, Republicans assume the same savings in their own budget blueprint crafted by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican. The plan would convert Medicare to a voucher plan, a proposal that's drawn scorn from seniors' groups including the AARP because it would end Medicare as a defined-benefit program. While the current law plows its projected savings back into subsidies to help low-income individuals buy insurance, the Ryan plan counts the money toward debt reduction. Representative Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat who led his party's House election efforts in 2010, called the broadcast deluge Nelson and other Democrats are facing ‘breathtaking in its hypocrisy.'" [6/28/2012]

NPR: "But here's the rub: The Ryan budget assumes that very same $500 billion cut. Well, ‘cut' isn't the right word; ‘savings' is more accurate. The reality is that in real dollars, Medicare spending will keep rising — just not by as much. ‘Their budget — the Romney-Ryan budget — takes all of those savings that they complained about,' Van Hollen says." [3/29/2012]