Smoking Gun: Obama Admits He Cut Billions from Medicare to Fund Obamacare

[ScienceRocks]

Smoking Gun: Obama Admits He Cut Billions from Medicare to Fund Obamacare
Townhall ^ | August 15, 2012 | Guy Benson
Smoking Gun: Obama Admits He Cut Billions from Medicare to Fund Obamacare - Guy Benson

We've been having some fun with a clip of David Axelrod angrily denouncing the fact that President Obama gutted Medicare by $700 Billion in order to partially pay for a brand new entitlement program. Axelrod's campaign colleague Stephanie Cutter refuted him on another show, calling the Medicare cuts an "achievement." But pay attention to the argument Axelrod makes here:

–----------–-------------------

Brace yourselves, Floridians -- I imagine you're going to see this exchange a quite a lot on your television screens over the next few months. Here we have Obama nonchalantly confirming that his unaffordable and unpopular healthcare transformation relied on hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicare cuts. He wasn't slashing $700 Billion out of (current, not future) Medicare to help that program remain solvent, mind you; he was, er, "re-allocating" that money to help construct a brand new entitlement scheme. The purpose of this eye-popping transfer of dollars, he says, was to ensure that Obamacare would not add a dime to the deficit. In the clip, he affirms that he would have vetoed any bill that added to the deficit, and pledged to bend the overall healthcare cost curve down. A few problems:

(1) Obamacare's price tag is almost double what Democrats said it would be over the first full decade of implementation.

(2) Obamacare does add to the deficit, despite the Medicare raid. (Paul Ryan exposed these accounting gimmicks at the healthcare summit)

(3) The national healthcare cost curve has actually been bent up, with costs expanding faster than if Democrats hadn't passed Obamacare at all.

(4) Medicare "as we know it" is still scheduled to become insolvent in 12 years, absent major reforms.

Obama lies...What the fuck has the presidency become.

 

[ScienceRocks]

TAPPER: “One of the concerns about health care and how you pay for it — one third of the funding comes from cuts to Medicare.”
BARACK OBAMA: “Right.”

TAPPER: “A lot of times, as you know, what happens in Congress is somebody will do something bold and then Congress, close to election season, will undo it.”

OBAMA: “Right.”

TAPPER: “You saw that with the ‘doc fix’.”

OBAMA: “Right.”

TAPPER: “Are you willing to pledge that whatever cuts in Medicare are being made to fund health insurance, one third of it, that you will veto anything that tries to undo that?”

OBAMA: “Yes. I actually have said that it is important for us to make sure this thing is deficit neutral, without tricks. I said I wouldn’t sign a bill that didn’t meet that criteria.”

Video
Video: Flashback: Obama Defends Cuts to Medicare to pay for ObamaCare

 

[asaratis]

...and the libs want to scare voters into thinking the Republicans would take away their Medicare.

What a bunch of dishonest assholes!

 

[ScienceRocks]

...and the libs want to scare voters into thinking the Republicans would take away their Medicare.

What a bunch of dishonest assholes!

The democrats have already done it, but because they have control of the media they're going to force it off on the republicans. These people crave power so much over the masses that they're willing to do anything.

 

[Rozman]

I heard Ryan say it again today for like the 10th time...
Seniors from age 55 on up will NOT see a bit of change to Medicare.
Those 10 years away will have some changes and some options that they can control.

I bet we will still hear today going forward that bunch over at MSNBC say that Ryan wants to screw over the people using Medicare today.

 

[Lakhota]

Matt, don't you ever get tired of lies?

Romney Campaign Falsely Accuses Obama Of Gutting Welfare In New Ad

Mitt Romney's campaign continued to attack President Barack Obama over welfare reform with the release of a new ad on Monday, once again falsely stating that the president dropped work requirements from welfare.

The ad, titled "Long History," is the second ad from the Romney campaign to claim that Obama has "gutted" welfare. The campaign's previous ad on welfare, released just last week, was widely criticized as inaccurate and debunked by numerous fact checkers.

Romney Campaign Falsely Accuses Obama Of Gutting Welfare In New Ad

 

[Mr. Shaman]

What the fuck has the presidency become.

Just gettin'-around to asking that question, huh??

"Back in 2003, when the so-called Medicare Modernization Act was being debated in Congress, we warned that this latest round of Medicare privatization contained severe flaws that would hurt consumers and taxpayers while lining the pockets of special interests. With nearly two years of hindsight, we can safely say we were right: The MMA has been a major disappointment for consumers and taxpayers, but a windfall for private insurance and drug companies.

We've laid out the extent of the MMA's failures in a new report: Medicare Privatization: Windfall for the Special Interests. The report chronicles the failures of the MMA in three key areas: Medicare Advantage overpayments, subsidies to regional PPOs, and drug prices.

Among the key findings:​

* Under the MMA, Medicare has been significantly overpaying private plans under Medicare Advantage. In 2005, Medicare overpaid private plans by at least 7% per beneficiary, costing taxpayers $2.7 billion. In 2006, overpayment reached 11% per beneficiary, costing taxpayers $4.6 billion.

* Under the MMA, Congress set aside $10 billion for an unnecessary subsidy (or "stabilization fund") to regional PPOs. This year, however, 88% of beneficiaries have access to a regional PPO, before the so-called "stabilization fund" was even tapped--no subsidy was necessary.

* Medicare Part D drug prices are substantially higher than the prices obtained by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), which negotiates prices on behalf of consumers. For all of the top 20 drugs prescribed to seniors, the lowest price charged by any Part D plan was higher than the lowest price secured by the VA. Yet Congress refused to let Medicare negotiate directly with the drug companies, as the VA does.


Bottom line: this report shows that, unfortunately for consumers and taxpayers, the MMA has not even come close to meeting the high expectations set for it by Congress. Consumers are getting hurt and taxpayers fleeced, while insurance companies and drug manufacturers are raking in money faster than they can count it. Congress needs to move away from this deeply flawed privatization model, and instead focus on strengthening Medicare."

Stupid Fuckin' Teabaggers​

 

[Lakhota]

CNN anchor Soledad O'Brien debunked the pervasive right-wing media falsehood that President Obama "stole $700 billion" from Medicare.

Right-wing media have repeatedly claimed that the Medicare savings included in Obama's Affordable Care Act (ACA) "gutted" the Medicare program. However, on CNN's Starting Point, when Romney senior adviser John Sununu claimed that Obama "gutted Medicare by taking $717 billion out of it," O'Brien was quick to correct him.

O'Brien pointed out that Sununu's talking point has been debunked by the Congressional Budget Office, which found that the Medicare savings in the ACA are not cuts, but rather a reduction in the expected rate of growth of the program.

O'Brien also noted that independent fact-checkers have found that the Affordable Care Act does not cut Medicare benefits. These fact-checkers also determined that the claim that hundreds of billions of dollars have been cut from Medicare is outright false.

When Sununu continued to claim that Obama had gutted Medicare, O'Brien confronted him with even more facts, citing evidence that drug providers and hospitals agreed to the Medicare savings because their "theory is that what they're going to be able to do is make up by the number of people who come into the system. It doesn't reduce or cut the benefits.

More by Medody Johnson: CNN's O'Brien Corrects Right-Wing Media Medicare Falsehood | Blog | Media Matters for America

 

[Lakhota]

The Romney campaign’s new ad blitz reinforces its latest attack – that President Obama cut Medicare spending by $716 billion – with an ominous warning to seniors. But the Affordable Care Act’s cuts and other Medicare reforms don’t touch benefits, they target waste in provider payments. In fact, the totality of Obama’s Medicare reforms expand benefits for seniors and lower out-of-pocket costs. The Affordable Care Act actually enhances Medicare benefits by closing the prescription drug coverage gap known as the “doughnut hole” and expanding free preventive services, including an annual wellness visit.

More: Obama’s Medicare Reforms Expanded, Not Cut, Benefits For Seniors | TPMDC

 

[Amazed]

Matt, don't you ever get tired of lies?

Romney Campaign Falsely Accuses Obama Of Gutting Welfare In New Ad

Mitt Romney's campaign continued to attack President Barack Obama over welfare reform with the release of a new ad on Monday, once again falsely stating that the president dropped work requirements from welfare.

The ad, titled "Long History," is the second ad from the Romney campaign to claim that Obama has "gutted" welfare. The campaign's previous ad on welfare, released just last week, was widely criticized as inaccurate and debunked by numerous fact checkers.

Romney Campaign Falsely Accuses Obama Of Gutting Welfare In New Ad

Shut up Shitting Bull, you have him in own own words admitting he did...

 

[naturegirl]

Matt, don't you ever get tired of lies?

Romney Campaign Falsely Accuses Obama Of Gutting Welfare In New Ad

Mitt Romney's campaign continued to attack President Barack Obama over welfare reform with the release of a new ad on Monday, once again falsely stating that the president dropped work requirements from welfare.

The ad, titled "Long History," is the second ad from the Romney campaign to claim that Obama has "gutted" welfare. The campaign's previous ad on welfare, released just last week, was widely criticized as inaccurate and debunked by numerous fact checkers.

Romney Campaign Falsely Accuses Obama Of Gutting Welfare In New Ad

And Huffpo is lying, in the above interview with Jake Tapper and Obama, Obama says he has cut Medicare and it is 1/3 of the payment of ObamaTax.

Don't believe everything you read, the link I posted earlier has the video showing Obama saying it.

 

[tererun]

Matt, don't you ever get tired of lies?

Romney Campaign Falsely Accuses Obama Of Gutting Welfare In New Ad

Mitt Romney's campaign continued to attack President Barack Obama over welfare reform with the release of a new ad on Monday, once again falsely stating that the president dropped work requirements from welfare.

The ad, titled "Long History," is the second ad from the Romney campaign to claim that Obama has "gutted" welfare. The campaign's previous ad on welfare, released just last week, was widely criticized as inaccurate and debunked by numerous fact checkers.

Romney Campaign Falsely Accuses Obama Of Gutting Welfare In New Ad

Shut up Shitting Bull, you have him in own own words admitting he did...

yes, totally ignore the truth that it does not because it completely screws the entire claim of the right. Stop being mean and pointing out Romney's lies, just quietly drink the republican kool aid and slowly go to sleep. It is good for you, trust me. All that thinking really hurts.

 

[Amazed]

Matt, don't you ever get tired of lies?



Romney Campaign Falsely Accuses Obama Of Gutting Welfare In New Ad

Shut up Shitting Bull, you have him in own own words admitting he did...

yes, totally ignore the truth that it does not because it completely screws the entire claim of the right. Stop being mean and pointing out Romney's lies, just quietly drink the republican kool aid and slowly go to sleep. It is good for you, trust me. All that thinking really hurts.

(smile) Obama is lying about how he cut Medicare, you don't believe him when he said he did?

 

[Lakhota]

Matt, don't you ever get tired of lies?

Romney Campaign Falsely Accuses Obama Of Gutting Welfare In New Ad

Mitt Romney's campaign continued to attack President Barack Obama over welfare reform with the release of a new ad on Monday, once again falsely stating that the president dropped work requirements from welfare.

The ad, titled "Long History," is the second ad from the Romney campaign to claim that Obama has "gutted" welfare. The campaign's previous ad on welfare, released just last week, was widely criticized as inaccurate and debunked by numerous fact checkers.

Romney Campaign Falsely Accuses Obama Of Gutting Welfare In New Ad

And Huffpo is lying, in the above interview with Jake Tapper and Obama, Obama says he has cut Medicare and it is 1/3 of the payment of ObamaTax.

Don't believe everything you read, the link I posted earlier has the video showing Obama saying it.

Bullshit. You wouldn't know context if it bite you on the ass. Obama cut the Medicare budget, but he cut nothing from recipients - in fact he gave them more.

 

[LordBrownTrout]

Yes, O said this and they don't like being called out on what they've done.

 

[tererun]

Matt, don't you ever get tired of lies?

Romney Campaign Falsely Accuses Obama Of Gutting Welfare In New Ad

Mitt Romney's campaign continued to attack President Barack Obama over welfare reform with the release of a new ad on Monday, once again falsely stating that the president dropped work requirements from welfare.

The ad, titled "Long History," is the second ad from the Romney campaign to claim that Obama has "gutted" welfare. The campaign's previous ad on welfare, released just last week, was widely criticized as inaccurate and debunked by numerous fact checkers.

Romney Campaign Falsely Accuses Obama Of Gutting Welfare In New Ad

And Huffpo is lying, in the above interview with Jake Tapper and Obama, Obama says he has cut Medicare and it is 1/3 of the payment of ObamaTax.

Don't believe everything you read, the link I posted earlier has the video showing Obama saying it.

Yes, obama cut medicare to bring us to the new ACA. So he really did not actually cut care, just cleaned up double spending. You republicans did notice both programs cover medical care, right that did sink through your thick skulls and reach those two starving neurons you have, right?

Nothing to see here, just republicans wishing they had a point.

 

[Politico]

What smoking gun? Obama has never denied making cuts to it.

 

[Eaglewings]

This has been around and out in the open in the news for along time.
Whose Plan Destroys Medicare -- Obama's or Romney-Ryan's?

The big difference, though, is the Affordable Care Act achieves these savings by reducing Medicare payments to drug companies, hospitals, and other providers rather than cutting payments to Medicare beneficiaries.

The Romney-Ryan plan, by contrast, achieves its savings by turning Medicare into a voucher whose value doesn't keep up with expected increases in healthcare costs -- thereby shifting the burden onto Medicare beneficiaries, who will have to pay an average of $6,500 a year more for their Medicare insurance, according an analysis of the Republican plan by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.Moreover, the Affordable Care Act uses its Medicare savings to help children and lower-income Americans afford health care, and to help seniors pay for prescription drugs by filling the so-called "donut hole" in Medicare Part D coverage.

The Romney-Ryan plan uses the savings to finance even bigger tax cuts for the very wealthy.

Robert Reich: Whose Plan Destroys Medicare -- Obama's or Romney-Ryan's?

 

[OODA_Loop]

30+ years of their stealing your MEDICARE and killing granny. Meh.

 

[Amazed]

Matt, don't you ever get tired of lies?



Romney Campaign Falsely Accuses Obama Of Gutting Welfare In New Ad

And Huffpo is lying, in the above interview with Jake Tapper and Obama, Obama says he has cut Medicare and it is 1/3 of the payment of ObamaTax.

Don't believe everything you read, the link I posted earlier has the video showing Obama saying it.

Yes, obama cut medicare to bring us to the new ACA. So he really did not actually cut care, just cleaned up double spending. You republicans did notice both programs cover medical care, right that did sink through your thick skulls and reach those two starving neurons you have, right?

Nothing to see here, just republicans wishing they had a point.

You don't want to get into a HC debate swetie, it won't be pretty...

He didn't "end" any double coverage, he robbed one to pay for another, and he specifically robbed seniors.

Tell me,when does medicare end?