Bush/Kerry Medicare Commercial

[crabcake]

I just got this via email ... can one of you political gurus tell me if you're knowledgeable of this? Is it accurate? :shrug:

Before you jump to conclusions, read this, and have a great day! Have you seen the John Kerry commercial in which George Bush pledges to help Seniors on Medicare and "the very next day imposes a 17% premium increase - the biggest in history"?

That add is a stroke of genius on Kerry's part and will surely gain him
many votes among the uninformed. ++++ I found it so amazing that I did
some homework on the issue. As it turns out the 17% increase was not
imposed by President Bush but was mandated by the "balanced budget
agreement" signed by President Clinton, voted into law by Senator John
Kerry, and was scheduled to come into effect during the Bush
administration. President Bush had no authority to reverse what had been
voted into law by Senator Kerry during the Clinton administration. ++++++
Once again Kerry is counting on the ignorance of the American people.

 

[SamSpade]

http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/medicare.asp

 

[ylexot]

I just got this via email ... can one of you political gurus tell me if you're knowledgeable of this? Is it accurate? :shrug:

Here's a great site for stuff like this

On September 5, the weekend that the Department of Health and Human Services announced the 17% hike in Medicare premiums, the Kerry campaign released an ad that said Bush "imposes the biggest Medicare premium increase in history." Their facts are correct - this year will be the biggest increase in Medicare premiums since the program began. However, Bush didn't "impose" the increase unilaterally, as the ad claims. The increase was announced as part of the annual HHS cost estimate for projected healthcare spending in the coming fiscal year. Lemieux, the health analyst, told FactCheck.org:

Lemieux: It is just wrong to say that Kerry is responsible for the increase, and it may be a bit of a stretch to blame this on Bush, since it is not explicitly his doing.

HHS bases the estimate on the previous year's expenditures, and then factors in any new changes while accounting for the overall inflated cost of healthcare. This year's estimate for 2005 reflects the changes in spending that resulted from the President's Medicare bill, and also from other factors.