Saturday, February 4, 2012

Republicans and Medicare Cuts

I don't mind saying, John McDonough's blog is worth following.

The claim that Democrats voted to cut Medicare through the ACA has gotten a lot of play.  Here in Oregon it came up a lot in the Bonamici-Cornilles race, with Cornilles claiming Bonamici wanted to restrict choices for seniors.  Via McDonough, here is an aspect that didn't get a lot of press (emphasis mine):
In the new Republican-controlled House of Representative in 2011, House Budget Chair Paul Ryan (R-WI) advanced a controversial federal budget plan which included a major restructuring of the Medicare program to change the program from largely fee-for-service to premium support/vouchers. This proposal drew widespread praise and condemnation, and mountains of attention.
Less noticed was the part of the Ryan budget plan which repealed most of the ACA, with one huge and unnoticed exception -- the $449 billion in Medicare reductions, documented in the CBO report on the Ryan plan. The Ryan plan was put before the entire House, and nearly every Republican member voted for it; the plan was also put before the Senate and endorsed by all Republican members minus four (one of those four was MA Senator Scott Brown).
So the one part of the ACA that congressional Republicans are on record as supporting are those same Medicare cuts that Republican candidates use to bash Democrats.  And Rob Cornilles was as culpable as Bonamici (neither served in Congress for the ACA or its repeal vote) of everything he accused her of.  Gee, I wonder how Politifact missed that.

No comments: