Dems Brag That Their Running Mate ObamaCare Cut Medicare

 Democrats Cut Billions from Medicare to Pay for ObamaCare, and They’re Not Ashamed to Admit It

• Democrats can’t hide from their plan to bankrupt Medicare, and an Obama campaign advisor had to admit this weekend that Democrats cut $700 billion from the program to pay for ObamaCare.
• Democrats have repeatedly pointed to the cuts they made to Medicare in order to pay for ObamaCare as their model for future cuts to Medicare.
• House Democrats have voted again and again to keep the cuts to Medicare on put the program on track for bankruptcy, leaving in place the prospect of disastrous benefit cuts for seniors.   

Democrats can’t hide from their plan to bankrupt Medicare, and an Obama campaign advisor had to admit this weekend that Democrats cut $700 billion from the program to pay for ObamaCare: 

OBAMA’S DEPUTY CAMPAIGN MANAGER ADMITS DEMOCRATS’ “$700 BILLION CUTS IN MEDICARE”: “ ‘On top of the savings we’ve already achieved. You know I heard Mitt Romney deride the $700 billion cuts in Medicare that the president achieved through health care reform,’ said Cutter.” (Daniel Halper, “Obama Campaign Defends President’s $700 Billion Cuts to Medicare,” The Weekly Standard, 8/12/2012) 

CBO: LATEST ESTIMATE FOR OBAMACARE’S MEDICARE CUTS AT $741 BILLION: (“Estimates for the Insurance Coverage Provisions of the Affordable Care Act Updated for the Recent Supreme Court Decision,” Congressional Budget Office, July 2012)

“BURIED DEEP WITHIN THE CBO REPORTS,” NEW FIGURE FOR MEDICARE CUTS: “One interesting number buried deep within the CBO reports: $741 billion. That’s how much the government would save from cutting subsidies for supplemental Medicare insurance, according to the new estimates. But that’s a jump from the original estimate of $500 billion over 10 years.”

“ ‘What that proves, according to Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former CBO chief who now runs the conservative American Action Forum, is that the agency is acknowledging what Republicans have said all along — that the scorekeeping for the law was always unrealistic.’” (Jonathan Allen and Matt Dobias, “Health Care Law Now Cheaper, Won’t Cover As Many People,” Politico, 7/24/2012) 

Democrats have repeatedly pointed to the cuts they made to Medicare in order to pay for ObamaCare as their model for future cuts to Medicare:

PELOSI TO CBS: GOVERNMENT HEALTHCARE TAKEOVER IS THE MODEL FOR MEDICARE CUTS: “SCHIEFFER: ‘Let me just interrupt you. Don’t you have to though give some plan or some idea of how you’re going to reform Medicare because we all know it can’t sustain as it is.

“REP. PELOSI:  Well, we in our health care bill as you probably know saved half a trillion dollars in Medicare. … That’s one of the fights that we are having. because we want to have those savings to keep Medicare solvent.” (Remarks from Rep. Nancy Pelosi, CBS’ Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer, 6/5/2011)

TO ABC NEWS: “We took $500 billion dollars, half a trillion dollars, in the health care bill, to put [Medicare] on a path of stability for a decade going into the future.” (Jonathan Karl and John Parkinson, “Exclusive: Pelosi Says Democrats Have ‘Very Good Chance’ to Win Back the House in 2012,” ABC News, 6/2/2011)

PELOSI ADMITS “WE TOOK HALF A TRILLION DOLLARS OUT OF MEDICARE” WITH GOVERNMENT HEALTHCARE TAKEOVER: “You don’t have to have cuts in those initiatives in order to reduce cost there, and we have proven that we’re willing to make cuts in the cost to initiatives. We took half a trillion dollars out of Medicare in the Affordable Care Act, the health care bill, already, and there’s certainly more opportunities for savings in that respect.” (Remarks from Nancy Pelosi, CNBC’s “Closing Bell”, 10/29/2011)

REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN SAID OBAMACARE IS THE DEMOCRAT MEDICARE PLAN: “Number one, the president has put a plan on the table.  And let’s remember that the Affordable Care Act, the healthcare reform bill, had some significant Medicare reform.” (Remarks from Chris Van Hollen, NBC’s “Meet the Press,” 5/22/2011)

House Democrats have voted again and again to keep the cuts to Medicare on put the program on track for bankruptcy, leaving in place the prospect of disastrous benefit cuts for seniors:

98% OF HOUSE DEMS VOTED IN JAN 2011 AGAINST REPEALING OBAMACARE’S BRUTAL CUTS TO MEDICARE: (Roll Call 14, Clerk of the U.S. House, 1/19/2011)

96% OF HOUSE DEMS VOTED TO KEEP MEDICARE ON TRACK FOR BANKRUPTCY: (Roll Call 270, Clerk of the U.S. House, 4/14/2011)

97% OF HOUSE DEMOCRATS VOTED AGAIN THIS JULY TO KEEP OBAMACARE’S BRUTAL CUTS TO MEDICARE IN PLACE: (Roll Call 460, Clerk of the U.S. House, 7/11/2012)

90% OF HOUSE DEMS VOTED AGAINST REPEALING IPAB: (Roll Call 126, Clerk of the U.S. House, 3/22/2012) 

DEMOCRATS VOW TO KEEP MEDICARE ON TRACK FOR BANKRUPTCY, BENEFIT CUTS:

WHEN MEDICARE’S TRUSTEES PREDICTED MEDICARE’S BANKRUPTCY LAST YEAR, NANCY PELOSI CLAIMED THAT MEDICARE’S FINANCES WERE “STRONG”: (“Pelosi Statement on Report of the Social Security and Medicare Board of Trustees,” Office of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, 5/13/2011)

MEDICARE TRUSTEES SAY MEDICARE WILL GO BANKRUPT IN 2024, SAME AS LAST YEAR’S ESTIMATES: “The Medicare Trustees Report released today shows that the Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund is expected to remain solvent until 2024, the same as last year’s estimate, but action is needed to secure its long-term future.  In 2011, the HI Trust Fund expenditures were lower than expected.” (Press Release, “Medicare Stable, But Requires Strengthening,” Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 4/23/2012)

SENIORS COULD SUFFER 26% BENEFIT CUTS OR 47% TAX INCREASES UNDER DEMS’ MEDICARE PLAN: “Lawmakers could address the long-range financial imbalance in several different ways. In theory, they could immediately increase the standard 2.90-percent payroll tax by the amount of the actuarial deficit to 4.25 percent, or they could reduce expenditures by a corresponding amount. Note, however, that these changes would require an immediate 47-percent increase in the standard tax rate or an immediate 26-percent reduction in expenditures.” (p. 32-33, “2012 Annual Report of the Board of Trustees of Federal Hospital Insurance and Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Funds,” The Boards of Trustees of the Federal Hospital Insurance and Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Funds, 4/23/2012)