Obama In 2010 On Ryan's Roadmap: 'This Is An Entir

[teflep]

The second video is so good and THIS Is the President we need back (where is my Gotye parody).
"The other party's trying to hurdle senior citizens". "CAn't start of with A whose to blame and B how to make the public afraid of the other side". Oh how I miss him....great speech at the GOP House Convention.

Back in January of 2010, Wisconsin's First District Congressman Paul Ryan was pushing for alternative solutions to the nation's debt problem, garnering praise from President Obama for putting forth a "serious," "legitmate" proposal to save our critical health and retirement security programs for current and future generations.

The President went out of his way to commend Ryan for his proposal, calling it genuine, detailed and a legitimate plan to tackle our fiscal crisis.

President Obama traveled to Baltimore to speak at the annual House Republican pretreat. In a rare moment, Obama fielded a number of questions from members on specific policy areas, including one from Ryan, who raised concern about what he described as an 84% increase in the rate of federal spending after Obama's first year.

www.wbal.com/article/93032/12/template-story/Obama-In-2010-On-Ryans-Roadmap-This-Is-An-Entirely-Legitimate-Proposal

[soontobeka]

To be honest, hasn't Obamacare cut the same amount of money from Medicare spending as the Ryan plan but does not turn it into a voucher program?

I cannot view the videos at this time.

[teflep]

Aug 15, 2012 9:02:09 GMT -5 soontobeka said:

To be honest, hasn't Obamacare cut the same amount of money from Medicare spending as the Ryan plan but does not turn it into a voucher program?

I cannot view the videos at this time.

$700 million was the cut so maybe. Not sure on numbers,

[sweettooth]

Aug 15, 2012 9:02:09 GMT -5 soontobeka said:

To be honest, hasn't Obamacare cut the same amount of money from Medicare spending as the Ryan plan but does not turn it into a voucher program?

I cannot view the videos at this time.

Beneficiaries' benefits are not cut--payments to private insurance companies (Medicare Advantage, not Medicare, the government program) and hospitals under certain conditions are cut.

From Politifact: www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/aug/15/stephanie-cutter/ryans-plan-includes-700-billion-medicare-cuts-says/


Well, there are cuts and then there are CUTS. Neither Obama nor his health care law literally "cut" a dollar from the Medicare program’s budget.

Rather, the health care law instituted a number of changes to reduce the growth of Medicare costs. At the time the law was passed, those reductions amounted to $500 billion over the next 10 years.

What kind of spending reductions are we talking about? They were mainly aimed at insurance companies and hospitals, not beneficiaries. The law makes significant reductions to Medicare Advantage, a subset of Medicare plans run by private insurers. Medicare Advantage was started under President George W. Bush, and the idea was that competition among the private insurers would reduce costs. But in recent years the plans have actually cost more than traditional Medicare. So the health care law scales back the payments to private insurers.

Hospitals, too, will be paid less if they have too many re-admissions, or if they fail to meet other new benchmarks for patient care.

Still, the overall Medicare budget is projected to go up for the foreseeable future. The health care law tries to limit that growth, making it less than it would have been without the law, but not reducing its overall budget. So claims that Obama would "cut" Medicare need more explanation to be fully accurate. In the past, we’ve rated similar statements Half True or Mostly False, depending on the wording and context.

Because Medicare spending gets bigger every year, the cost-saving mechanisms in the health care law also get bigger. Also, it takes a few years for the health care law’s savings mechanisms to kick in. In fact, the effects of time are the main reason the $500 billion number has turned into $700 billion.

The CBO determined in 2011 that the federal health care law would reduce Medicare outlays by $507 billion between 2012 and 2021. In a more recent estimates released this year, the CBO looked at the years 2013 to 2022 and determined the health care law affected Medicare outlays by $716 billion.

So it’s timing that’s making the "cuts" bigger, not changes to Medicare.

Does the Ryan budget ‘protect those cuts’?

Now onto our second question: Does Ryan’s budget keep the reductions in Medicare spending? The short answer is yes.

Here’s what Ryan said in an interview with George Stephanopolous of ABC News in June, before his selection as Romney’s running mate:

Stephanopoulos: "You know, several independent fact-checkers have taken a look at that claim, the $500 billion in Medicare cuts, and said that it's misleading. And in fact, by that accounting, your budget, your own budget, which Gov. Romney has endorsed, would also have $500 billion in Medicare cuts.

Paul: "Well, our budget keeps that money for Medicare to extend its solvency. What Obamacare does is it takes that money from Medicare to spend on Obamacare. ..." (Read the full exchange.)

So Paul has confirmed his budget includes the Medicare savings.

The Romney campaign got questions on this point the day after Cutter’s remarks, and issued a statement saying that Romney intended to fully repeal the federal law, including the savings for Medicare.

"Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have always been fully committed to repealing Obamacare, ending President Obama’s $716 billion raid on Medicare, and tackling the serious fiscal challenges our country faces," said Lanhee Chen, Romney’s policy director, in a statement reported by NBC News. "A Romney-Ryan administration will restore the funding to Medicare, ensure that no changes are made to the program for those 55 or older, and implement the reforms that they have proposed to strengthen it for future generations."

Cutter, though, was talking about the Ryan budget. We should point out that the Ryan budget is a congressional resolution that doesn’t have the force of law. And its plan for Medicare hasn’t been turned into legislation that could be analyzed in detail by the Congressional Budget Office.

Still, Ryan himself said his plan did include the reductions in future spending that were part of the federal health care law.

That’s because both sides agree on one point: Medicare spending is growing too rapidly, and it needs to reined in.

Our ruling

Cutter said that Romney attacked Obama for cutting $700 billion out of Medicare, but "Paul Ryan protected those cuts in his budget." Again, with this item we are not addressing whether they are cuts, but simply whether she is correctly characterizing Ryan's plan.

Cutter is correct that the Ryan budget plan included cost savings that were part of the future health care law. Just recently, the Romney campaign backed away from that play, saying Romney’s plan would restore the spending that the health law is set to curtail, such as extra funding for private insurers under the Medicare Advantage plan.

Still, Cutter was right about the Ryan plan. We rate her statement True.

[sweettooth]

The way I understand it is that part of the Obama cuts will be to problematic hospitals that seem to be overcharging--see the article in another thread here today. That makes sense.