Obamacare was supposed to be President Barack Obama’s legacy. But it’s looking like a political millstone.
The mammoth and unpopular health insurance overhaul weighed down Democrats in 2010 when Republicans helped turn seniors to their side.
And now Democrats have unexpectedly had to play defense over Obamacare’s Medicare cuts even as Mitt Romney picked Congressman Paul Ryan as a vice-presidential running mate and drew attention to unpopular Republican plans that cap future Medicare spending.
Central to the Republican attack: Obamacare cut $716 billion in anticipated Medicare spending over a decade. Republicans are driving the message home in TV ads and robocalls bashing Democrats.
“This could cost us the election,” Kelly Ward, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s political director wrote in a fundraising email last week. “We have to get the facts out to voters immediately.”
The first Democratic talking point: Ryan’s Medicare plan signed off on the very Obamacare cuts that Republicans are now bashing.
Obama’s campaign defended itself Friday in an ad that said the “the non-partisan AARP says Obamacare ‘cracks down on Medicare fraud, waste, and abuse,’ and strengthens guaranteed benefits.”
On Saturday, Ryan kept up the anti-Obamacare pressure in his first presidential-campaign trip to Florida, where he spoke at the Republican-friendly retirement community The Villages, along with his mom, a part-time Lauderdale-by-the-Sea resident.
The Obamacare cuts to Medicare haven’t yet reduced services and are structured in such a way that they’re not supposed to hit benefits, at least in the short term. Medicare spending is actually forecast to increase in 2012 at a higher annual rate than the average annual increase over the prior five years.
Romney’s ad, however, makes it sound as if the cuts directly hit current Medicare recipients.
“You paid in to Medicare for years — every paycheck. Now, when you need it, Obama has cut $716 billion dollars from Medicare,” the ad says.
But beyond the $716 billion number, most facts and figures might not matter. Republicans and Democrats say voters will make their decision on whom they trust more, not whose plan has every single detail spelled out. Neither side is willing to admit that Medicare, assuming taxes aren’t raised, will have to experience actual cuts in future benefits. to remain solvent
Republicans charge Democrats with “stealing” from Medicare to expand government, namely Medicaid, the expensive health insurance program for the poor that would be capped under Romney and Ryan, whose plan trims about $810 billion from the program over a decade.
Democrats charge Republicans with “shredding the social safety net” to pay for tax cuts for millionaires. Medicaid, they note, has paid for up to two-thirds of daily nursing home expenses in Florida, where 3.3 million people receive $21.4 billion of the program’s benefits.
The battle lines are thus clearly drawn over who’s plan is worse for retirees. And the winner of that argument could win the White House.
Romney's spot is here
Obama's spot is here
Its too bad journalists have such a hard time understanding Paul Ryan's plan-the so called cuts go back into the Medicare trust fund. Obama's go to fund Obamacare-how hard is that to understand Mr. Caputo?
Posted by: Kate | August 18, 2012 at 04:57 PM
That's right, the expensive Medicaid program--which also wastes money (more or less than the 30% academics say Medicare wastes?)--spends an average of $6,485 per person.
That money comes from taxpayers (federal and state).
Maybe one reason so many of us can't afford to buy health insurance is because we're also having to foot the bill for these folks' health benefit.
Maybe, the money now wasted in Medicare and Medicaid--that is only enriching the health-care industrial complex beast--could be redirected to health insurance premiums or left in taxpayers hands.
Maybe, if more of us could afford to buy insurance, the cost of insurance would come down.
Maybe then, the %6,500 per person Medicaid payments could be diverted into insurance premiums for the needy ... further driving down the health insurance costs.
Maybe ... some day ... someone really bright will get elected President ...
But probably not.
Posted by: whasup | August 18, 2012 at 05:40 PM
That's what happens when you shove a law down people's throats.
Posted by: Really... | August 18, 2012 at 06:20 PM
When did the AARP become non-partisan? They are now and have always been a liberal organization. Remember the signed on to Obamacare.
Posted by: Jasper | August 19, 2012 at 01:28 PM