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Obama's False Medicare Claim

He accuses McCain of proposing to cut benefits. Not true.

 

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Summary
In a TV ad and in speeches, Obama is making bogus claims that McCain plans to cut $880 billion from Medicare spending and to reduce benefits.

A TV spot says McCain's plan requires "cuts in benefits, eligibility or both."
Obama said in a speech that McCain plans "cuts" that would force seniors to "pay more for your drugs, receive fewer services, and get lower quality care."

These claims are false, and based on a single newspaper report that says no such thing. McCain's policy director states unequivocally that no benefit cuts are envisioned. McCain does propose substantial "savings" through such means as cutting fraud, increased use of information technology in medicine and better handling of expensive chronic diseases. Obama himself proposes some of the same cost-saving measures. We're skeptical that either candidate can deliver the savings they promise, but that's no basis for Obama to accuse McCain of planning huge benefit cuts.

Update, Oct. 21: A second Obama ad claims that McCain's plan would bring about a 22 percent cut in benefits, "higher premiums and co-pays," and more expensive prescription drugs.

Analysis
The Obama campaign began the Medicare assault with a 30-second TV ad released Oct. 17, which it said would run "across the country in key states."

Obama-Biden TV Ad: : "It Gets Worse"
Announcer:
John McCain's health care plan … first we learned he's going to tax health care benefits to pay for part of it.

Now the Wall Street Journal reports John McCain would pay for the rest of his health care plan "with major reductions to Medicare and Medicaid."

Eight hundred and eighty-two billion from Medicare alone. "Requiring cuts in benefits, eligibility, or both."

John McCain … Taxing Health Benefits … Cutting Medicare. We Can't Afford John McCain.

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Member Comments

  • Posted By: Krohn @ 11/02/2008 11:25:14 PM

    The Wall Street crisis was planned the night of Obama's meeting at Bill Ayres home to put Obama in The White House. Together they put a beautiful plan into place.

    This Strategy was first elucidated in the 1966 issue of 'The Nation' Magazine by a pair of radical Socialist Columbia University professors, Richard Andrew Cloward and Frances Fox Piven.

    David Horowitz summarizes it as:

    "The strategy of forcing political change through an orchestrated crisis. The "Cloward-Piven Strategy" seeks to hasten the fall of Capitalism by overloading the Government bureaucracy with a flood of impossible demands, thus pushing society into crisis and economic collapse.
    unquote

    Obama begin with ACORN by funneling millions into their organization. He then trained ACORN to stage protests in banks to force them to issue risky loans or they would be threatened to face racial charges. ACORN was trained to intimidate financial institutions into giving ???Ninja??? loans to people with NO assets, NO job and NO income, who couldn???t afford these loans.

    That caused the housing bubble two years ago it was by ACORN's actions they were able to destroy our credit system.

    As this played out, D-Barney Frank and D-Chris Dodd were able to cover up the millions of improvident loans to these bad risky house buyers. And Barney Frank and his chums successfully were able to block all of President Bush's attempts to put a rein on this problem.

    So Fannie & Freddie was forced to purchase all these failed subprime mortgages.

    Then both Frank and Dodd denied that there were any problems, and refused the Bush Admin. requests to set up a regulatory agency to watch over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and they were still pushing for these agencies to go even further in promoting sub-prime mortgage loans almost up to the 'minute they failed'.

    Democrats then blamed Bush saying it happened on his watch knowing it would hurt the Republican Party in the election setting it up that Barack Obama could use this to his advantage.

    Karl Marx once compared a Revolutionary struggle with the work of the mole, who sometimes burrows so far beneath the ground that he leaves no trace of his movement on the surface.

    Barack Obama is that Marxist mole !

  • Posted By: Mwanga @ 10/31/2008 1:25:04 PM

    Why do not you tell us all the untrue(s) that have been said by both candidates if you are really neutral?
    You want us to believe that one candidate is a saint and the other is a liar? We all know what political games, campaigning adds and speeches are about.

  • Posted By: Bill Hardin Jr @ 10/28/2008 9:22:33 AM

    How long are we going to stand for liberal lies ? I am 71 years old and I live in a very liberal county in Illinois. I see Cook county {Chicago} running the state and now trying to run the country. Liberal politics are basically based on class warfare. The only higher being I believe in is Jesus. If nobama gets in the people are going to lose our freedoms one by one. Liberals use lies and inuendo to get what they want. ALL OF YOUR MONEY

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A new ad goes too far when it says Medicare will be "bankrupt" in eight years.