Medicare Ripoff

On August 29, 2012 Paul Ryan accepted the Republican VP nomination and said “The greatest threat to Medicare is ObamaCare and we’re going to stop it”. If you haven’t done your fact checking let me help you out. Bill Clinton fought to repeal the Reagan cuts as they were eating away at the surplus in the Social Security (SS) and Medicare programs; he implemented the Defense of Marriage Act, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, welfare changes and more to save the programs. Then along came the Bush $1.35 trillion tax cuts for the rich, the unfunded wars, unfunded (2003-2007) Head Start and other programs. To pay for these things the money came out of the SS/Medicare trust funds and took away the surplus.

On August 30 ABC spoke with Jeb Bush in regard to the Republicans bringing Medicare front and center during the convention and Jeb said “You know, I thought it was an aspired choice because it immediately allowed the Republicans to be on offensive, now the conversation is about the $700+ billion of cuts over 10 years that is used to finance this new medical.” George Stephanopoulos responded with the cuts being the same as Ryan’s budget and Jeb said “But not to expand entitlement; to protect the trust fund over the long haul, with ObamaCare you’re basically double counting, he’s claiming credit for making this revenue neutral which is true if you count these cuts but then that accelerates the demise of Medicare”. George said Democrats are saying that Ryan reinstates the cuts in order to finance his tax cuts to the wealthy to which Jeb said “We’ve already had that argument and that’s a good argument to have for Democrats if they want to take money away from people consistently, it’ll create a cloud of uncertainty that allows us to have no economic growth, no hope, no optimism. And, I think Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney have a compelling case that’s better.”

It was no surprise the White House Senior Advisor told George Stephanopoulos on September 2 “Their campaign is built on a tripod of lies, a welfare attack that is just absolutely untrue; their suggestion that we’re raiding Medicare is absolutely untrue.” Romney did not bring up a plan for SS and the only time he brought up Medicare was when he attacked ObamaCare. The repeated Republican blockage of eliminating tax cuts for the rich just prove they don’t support the average American and won’t put money back in SS and Medicare; this is the greatest threat to Medicare not ObamaCare.