Today’s Lie:
President Obama raided Medicare – taking $716 Billion from seniors and using it to fund “Obamacare”.
On the day of his inauguration, Republican leaders made a concious and documented decision to oppose and demonise President Obama for the sole purpose of regaining political power. They have done so to the detriment of this country (e.g. the Debt crisis and credit rating downgrade – which Ryan had the audacity to blame on the President).
What’s insulting (at least to me) is that for this strategy to work, they expect the American public to be too lazy, too ignorant, or too willing to believe ill about President Obama to check the facts.
Think about it… if the Obama administration is really so bad, you wouldn’t need half-truths and outright lies to discredit it.
President Obama did not cut $716 Billion from Medicare. What he did was cut spending on Medicare. What’s the difference? Here ya go…
Suppose you spend $350/wk on groceries. After doing some research, you discover that by:
- clipping coupons
- planning shopping (take advantage of sales, fewer trips-less gas, etc.)
- buying in bulk
- buying generic where the quality is the same
you can save $71.60 a week on your grocery bill. You haven’t cut your groceries. You’re eating the same amount, getting the same quality. You’re just spending less. Yes… you cut $71.60 in spending… you didn’t cut any food “benefits”.
Now, once you’ve saved this $71.60/wk, would you take those savings and put it in the bank for “future” food purchases?
Heck NO! You’d take that money and use it for other things that need attention. You’d paint the house. You’d fix up the car. Maybe you’d send some money to your kid in college.
That’s what Obama did when he took the savings from Medicare and used it for “Obamacare”. The Medicare savings were used to address other needs in this country – namely millions of seniors that need assistance and 40+ million people in this country without health insurance. Now, maybe this isn’t a problem for you (and I don’t mean you personally — that’s a generic “you”), but some people think that in the greatest, richest nation in the world, we should be doing everything we can to help the frailest and most vulnerable segments of our society.
So, that’s what President Obama did.
He didn’t “raid” Medicare. He didn’t cut benefits to seniors.
He found a way to maintain the benefits in Medicare (actually enhanced those benefits according to the Medicare trustee) by streamlining the system – thereby reducing costs.
[CLICK HERE] to view the Medicare Trustee report with all the details…