Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Even after every media fact check organization in America has rated the GOP claim that Democrats cut $500 billion from Medicare benefits a "pants on fire" lie repeatedly since 2010, my summary here Fact Check: The NRCC's 'pants on fire' - the $500 billion lie that will not die, the GOP and "Galt - Gekko 2012" campaign have doubled-down on the lie and increased the amount to $716 billion.
ABC News has fact checked the latest Romney-Ryan version of the lie that will not die. FACT CHECK: Obama, Ryan, Romney Backed Medicare Cuts:
One way or another, Barack Obama, Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney all have supported the $700 billion in cuts to Medicare spending now in place under the Affordable Care Act.
But you wouldn’t know that by listening to the current debate.
The Romney-Ryan campaign in its latest TV ad assails Obama for approving the cuts in 2010. “Obama has cut $716 billion dollars from Medicare,” says the narrator. “The money you paid for your guaranteed health care…is going to a massive new government program that’s not for you.”
Voters might be left with the impression that Romney and Ryan have both opposed the cuts. The truth is that Ryan himself endorses them in his signature budget plan – the same plan Romney has said he would sign as president if it reached his desk.
Those Medicare savings -achieved through reduced provider reimbursements and curbed waste, fraud and abuse, not benefit cuts – appear in the House Republicans’ FY 2013 budget, which Ryan authored.
His plan would in part repeal the entirety of the Affordable Care Act — except the reductions in Medicare spending now at the center of debate, according to analysts with the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.
Where Romney and Ryan find shelter for their new line of attack is in what they claim they’d do with the savings. As the ad suggests, they don’t want the money to underwrite Obamacare, but for deficit reduction or other spending instead [tax expenditures, i.e., tax cuts for the 2%.]
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But in an added twist through all of this – further complicating the picture in a way that voters might not be aware – Romney asserts that the Romney-Ryan ticket is running on his budget proposal, not Ryan’s, and he would restore those cuts.
In other words, Romney wants to restore "waste, fraud and abuse" to Medicare to benefit insurance companies and medical providers.
PolitiFact, which has destroyed its credibility over the past couple of years with it's dubious fact check ratings, nevertheless has fact checked the latest Romney-Ryan version of the lie that will not die (yet another dubious rating). Mitt Romney: Says Barack Obama "robbed Medicare (of) $716 billion to pay for ... Obamacare." — Mostly False:
Here’s how Romney put it in an interview with 60 Minutes shortly after selecting Ryan:
"There's only one president that I know of in history that robbed Medicare, $716 billion to pay for a new risky program of his own that we call Obamacare."
Here, we’re checking whether Obama "robbed" Medicare of $716 billion dollars to pay for Obamacare.
$700 billion from Medicare?
The claim that Obama cut $700 billion out of Medicare is relatively new. Not long ago, the oft-cited number was $500 billion. How did he manage to cut another $200 billion when no one was looking?
First things first: Neither Obama nor his health care law literally cut a dollar amount from the Medicare program’s budget.
Rather, the health care law instituted a number of changes to try to bring down future health care costs in the program. At the time the law was passed, those reductions amounted to $500 billion over the next 10 years.
What kind of spending reductions are we talking about? They were mainly aimed at insurance companies and hospitals, not beneficiaries. The law makes significant reductions to Medicare Advantage, a subset of Medicare plans run by private insurers. Medicare Advantage was started under President George W. Bush, and the idea was that competition among the private insurers would reduce costs. But in recent years the plans have actually cost more than traditional Medicare. So the health care law scales back the payments to private insurers.
Hospitals, too, will be paid less if they have too many re-admissions, or if they fail to meet other new benchmarks for patient care.
Obama and fellow Democrats say the intention is to protect beneficiaries' coverage while forcing health care providers to become more efficient.
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Because Medicare spending gets bigger every year, the cost-saving mechanisms in the health care law also get bigger. Also, it takes a few years for the health care law’s savings mechanisms to kick in. In fact, the effects of time are the main reason the $500 billion number has turned into $700 billion.
The CBO determined in 2011 that the federal health care law would reduce Medicare outlays by $507 billion between 2012 and 2021. In a more recent estimate released this year, the CBO looked at the years 2013 to 2022 and determined the health care law affected Medicare outlays by $716 billion.
So it’s timing that’s making the cuts bigger, not changes to Medicare.
Now, to address the word "robbed." We know the civility is at a low ebb these days, but we think it’s worth pointing out that the money was not robbed in any literal sense of the word.
Congress passed the law through its normal process, and the proposal was debated out in the open during the many weeks that the final law was being negotiated.
* * *
Finally, Romney said Obama is the "only one president that I know of in history that robbed Medicare." In reality, several presidents have reduced Medicare spending.
We reviewed this history in detail in a fact-check of Romney’s statement from December, "Only one president has ever cut Medicare for seniors in this country . . . Barack Obama." We rated that False. Many presidents have sought to rein in Medicare spending.
Here are a few highlights from that fact-check:
• President Ronald Reagan cut Medicare by reducing payments to hospitals, and he cut benefits by raising deductibles.
• President George H.W. Bush cut benefits by repealing a law that would have expanded coverage for drugs and catastrophic illness.
• President Bill Clinton cut Medicare by changing payments to doctors and other providers, which could be considered to have an indirect effect on beneficiaries.
Our ruling
Romney said, "There's only one president that I know of in history that robbed Medicare, $716 billion to pay for a new risky program of his own that we call Obamacare."
The only element of truth here is that the health care law seeks to reduce future Medicare spending, and the tally of those cost reductions over the next 10 years is $716 billion. The money wasn’t "robbed," however, and other presidents have made similar reductions to the Medicare program.
We rate this statement Mostly False.
So what was "False" in December is now "Mostly False" because . . .? These guys kill me.
Soledad O’Brien of CNN has also fact checked the latest Romney-Ryan version of the lie that will not die. Soledad O'Brien fact checks $700+ billion Medicare cut claim:
After former Governor and Romney Senior Advisor John Sununu stated yesterday on Starting Point that the Affordable Care Act would cut $700+ billion out of Medicare, CNN Anchor Soledad O’Brien decided to do a fact check on this claim, repeated by others including RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, Romney Senior Advisor Barbara Comstock and 2012 GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney himself.
Here’s what she found.
Yeah, they are "pants on fire!" lying.
As usual, the Romney campaign is keeping up its shameless lying, despite getting called out for it by the media.
Paul Krugman posts Romney-Ryan: The Real Target:
Memo to the news media: you have now become players in this campaign, not just reporters. Mitt Romney isn’t seeking a debate on the issues; on the contrary, he’s betting that your gullibility and vanity will let him avoid a debate on the issues, including the issue of his own fitness for the presidency. I guess we’ll see if it works.
It is time for the lazy and feckless media villagers to shut down the Romney-Ryan and the Big Lie GOPropaganda machine. This is not how we do things in America.
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