The Romney campaign has claimed that reductions in Medicare spending that are part of the Affordable Care Act hurt Medicare’s finances. But as Managing Editor Lori Robertson explains on Connecticut Public Broadcasting, the opposite is true. And such claims falsely imply that Medicare is losing this money and won’t get it back.
For a full explanation on how Medicare Part A’s trust fund works, see our Aug. 24 article “Medicare’s ‘Piggy Bank.’ “
Stories by Lori Robertson
Managing Editor, FactCheck.org
Medicare’s ‘Piggy Bank’
Republicans claim the president’s $716 billion “cuts” to Medicare hurt the program’s finances. But the opposite is true. These cuts in the future growth of spending prolong the life of the Medicare trust fund, stretching the program’s finances out longer than they would last otherwise.
Mitt Romney has claimed that President Barack Obama has “robbed” Medicare. Rep. Paul Ryan, Romney’s running mate, said Obama “turned Medicare into a piggy bank to fund Obamacare,” promising to “stop the raid on Medicare.” And the Republican National Committee is promoting on its website a feature it calls “Obama’s Countdown to Medicare’s Bankruptcy,”
Cutting Medicare?
The Romney campaign says that President Obama’s health care law has cut $716 billion out of Medicare. But that’s a reduction in the future growth of spending over 10 years, not a slashing of the current Medicare budget. And the reduction extends the life of the Medicare trust fund.
Read more about Medicare’s woes and both campaigns’ plans to reduce spending in our Aug. 22 article, “A Campaign Full of Mediscare.”
A Campaign Full of Mediscare
The presidential campaign is overflowing with claims from both sides designed to scare seniors into thinking Medicare is being gutted or about to end altogether. Lost in the flurry of attack ads and political messaging is a policy debate on how best to reduce the growth of Medicare spending, a common goal of both campaigns. If all voters know …
Ryan’s Medicare Plan
Now that Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan is Mitt Romney’s running mate, the claims about Ryan’s Medicare plan are flying. We give the details on what the plan will do, and debunk Democratic claims that it would raise seniors’ costs by $6,000. That pertains to an outdated plan.
See “Outdated Attacks on Ryan” (Aug. 14) for more on misleading claims about his past proposals.
Outdated Attacks on Ryan
The Obama campaign points to old proposals by Rep. Paul Ryan in saying that Mitt Romney would pay “less than 1 percent in taxes” under Ryan’s plan and that seniors would pay $6,000 more for Medicare. Ryan’s 2010 budget proposal would have eliminated capital gains and dividend taxes — which were indeed the bulk of Romney’s tax burden for 2010 — but Ryan dropped that specific measure from subsequent budgets. The Medicare claim, too, pertains to a less generous plan Ryan released last year,
Romney Hijacks Credibility
A new Mitt Romney campaign ad passes off opinions of a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush as though they were from a newspaper’s reporters or editors. It’s a political trick used by both sides: hijacking a news organization’s credibility.
In this example, the Romney ad attacks President Obama’s mandate requiring employers to provide health insurance that includes free contraception. It attributes to the San Antonio Express-News the words: “Obama’s Insurance Decision Declares War on Religion.”
But the newspaper didn’t say that in any editorial or news article.
Could Kansans ‘Opt-Out’ of ‘Obamacare’?
A conservative group wrongly claimed that a failed state proposal would have given Kansans the right to “opt-out” of the federal health care law’s mandate to have health insurance. But the measure would have been meaningless. Federal law is the “supreme Law of the Land,” according to the U.S. Constitution.
For more on the mailers, which attacked moderate Republican state lawmakers and praised conservative members of the party, see our Aug. 3 story “Mailers Mislead on ‘Obamacare’ Opt-Out Amendment.”
Obama Not Trying to Curb Military Early Voting
Mitt Romney wrongly suggests the Obama campaign is trying to “undermine” the voting rights of military members through a lawsuit filed in Ohio. The suit seeks to block state legislation that limited early voting times for nonmilitary members; it doesn’t seek to impose restrictions on service members.
In an Aug. 4 Facebook posting, Romney called the lawsuit an “outrage,” and said that “if I’m entrusted to be the commander-in-chief, I’ll work to protect the voting rights of our military,
Who Pays 75 Percent of Health Care Law’s Taxes?
A Republican talking point falsely claims that the Congressional Budget Office found 75 percent of the federal health care law’s taxes would be paid by those earning less than $120,000 a year. CBO didn’t say that. Instead, it found 76 percent of those paying the mandate penalty would earn under that amount.
For more on this claim, see “Twisting Health Care Taxes,” our July 23 item.