Medicare criticism may haunt GOP

[nhboy]

Medicare criticism may haunt GOP - POLITICO.com Print View

"The Republican Party and its allies funneled millions into TV ads last year accusing Democrats from Pennsylvania to Missouri of “gutting Medicare” and “hurting seniors” — charges that compelled older voters to swing en masse toward the GOP.

But now, as Republicans move to tackle the country’s gaping debt, they are weighing changes to Medicare — from higher premiums to spending caps — that open them to the same attacks they leveled only months ago against Democrats over the health care law.

And Democrats haven’t forgotten it.

“I can imagine a lot of frustration from the president that when he chose to do Medicare savings that will be less impactful, these guys viciously attacked him for rationing health care and hurting seniors,” said Neera Tanden, a former administration aide who worked on the health care law and chief operating officer of the Center for American Progress. “At the end of the day, there is a [campaign] battle plan for attacking Medicare savings, and it was written by Republicans.” '

 

[bcp]

See, even if the republicans try to compromise with the dems, they still get crap.
Giving the dems exactly what they had been asking for and they get bit.

I say lock the dems out of the meeting rooms and conduct business like adults.

 

[Mongo53]

Yep, you can't trust Democrats one bit at all, make a deal with them, they'll break it, make a compromise with them, they'll will use it as fodder in the next election to help defeat you. And they get away with it, because the media will NOT show the context and tell both sides of the story.

Yea, Fox News is the Problem.

The Democrats lied to the American People and played games with the budget to get the CBO to produce a report that thier Health Care Reform would be budget neutral, which is never was, they just got the report by playing a shell game with the money in the budget.

The Republicans call them on it, and people took notice.

The Republicans are trying to make good on their promise, to get back to their core principals, cut spending and shrink the size of government.

That won't stop the Democrats and their co-horts in most of the media, from portraying the Republicans trying to bring back some reasonable balance in the budgets, like say for Medicare, we will no longer pay for Free Scooters for Everyone, to demagogue that as Republicans leaving old people out on the street sick and dying without any medicine or health care.

And the other side of the story, that Nonno just didn't see relevant to paste into his post:

Medicare criticism may haunt GOP - POLITICO.com Print View

...But Republicans caution that few, if any, members are openly calling for cuts to the universal health care program for senior citizens.

“I don’t think anyone has a desire to cut Medicare, but there are ways of streamlining it to be more efficient,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the ranking member on the Finance Committee, which oversees the program. “There is an awful lot of waste, an awful lot of fraud, an awful lot of over-prescribing and over-providing. Sooner or later, we’ve got to get to all those things. I think you could find billions and billions of dollars.”...

...Republicans argue there is a difference between the two debates. Last year, they took issue with what they described as a Democratic “shell game” on health reform. They relied on Medicare cuts — some of which may or may not materialize, given the whims of Congress — to help fund a new entitlement of guaranteed federal subsidies for 30 million uninsured Americans.

Asked about inconsistency between the debates, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said of the fiscal commission recommendations: “That is eliminating fraud and waste, not cutting Medicare benefits.” Coburn is one of six senators participating in the bipartisan deficit-reduction talks.

This won't stop the Liberals and the Media from arguing anything Republicans try to do to eleminate the waste, fraud and abuse and try to get costs under control, when we have a debt threatening to destroy us, as just ruthless spending cuts designed to attack the poor, and give the money to the rich, there is no way to cut medicare without hurting the most vunerable in our society.

Then a mega-buck commercial will come on in prime time, from a booming company telling you they will send you mega-buck medical scooter all free, whether you need it or NOT, no effort on your part, they will fill out all the paper work and get all the re-imbursement from Medicare.

Yea, Fox News is the Problem.

Some people will fall for your intellectually dishonest scam Nonno, but we aren't falling for it on this board.

 

[somdwatch]

I noticed also that

He never posts anything about Dems hiding 115 Billion in funding in the ObamaCare.

Exposing Liberal Lies: $105 Billion in Hidden ObamaCare Funding