Originally Posted By ecdc <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/aug/15/mitt-romney/mitt-romney-said-barack-obama-first-history-rob-me/" target="_blank">http://www.politifact.com/trut...-rob-me/</a> If you follow politics, you know that Obama robbed Medicare to pay for Obamacare. Or...not. Leave it to Republicans to take something they should love—government savings by cutting costs, but not benefits—and attack Obama with it. I do hope Romney supporters will at least educate themselves that Romney is being disingenuous when he claims that Obama robbed Medicare to pay for Obamacare.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 "Disingenuous" is in this instance a kindly term. This is a flat out cynical lie.
Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder This is what Soledad O'Brien was arguing with Sununu about.
Originally Posted By skinnerbox And on a related note... Ryan's budget, if implemented, will cut off 1.3 million veterans from VA services: <a href="http://www.vmwusa.org/index.php/healthcareservices/hcarticles/47-health/1079-va-care-end-eyed-for-13-million-vets" target="_blank">http://www.vmwusa.org/index.ph...ion-vets</a> <> The House Budget Committee, chaired by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), has told a veterans' group it is studying a plan to save $6 billion annually in VA health care costs by cancelling enrollment of any veteran who doesn't have a service-related medical condition and is not poor. Committee Republicans, searching for ways to curb federal deficits and rein in galloping VA costs, are targeting 1.3 million veterans who claim priority group 7 or 8 status and have access to VA care. Priority group 8 veterans have no service-connected disabilities and annual incomes, or net worth, that exceed VA means-test thresholds and VA "geographic income" thresholds, which are set by family size. Priority Group 7 veterans also have no service-connected disabilities and their incomes are above the means-test thresholds. But their incomes or net worth fall below the geographic index. In other words, because of where they live, in high cost areas, they likely struggle financially. Joseph Violante, national legislative director for Disabled American Veterans, said he first learned of the committee's interest in possibly narrowing access to VA clinics and hospitals from a DAV member from Wisconsin, chairman Ryan's home state. Violante and other DAV officials arranged their own meeting with a staff member for the committee. He confirmed growing interest in a cost-saving initiative to push priority 7 and 8 veterans out of VA health care. As this budget committee staffer reminded Violante, proponents for opening VA health care to all veterans had argued it would be cost neutral to VA. That's because VA would charge these vets modest co-payments for their care. Also VA would bill these veterans' private health insurance plans for the cost of their VA care. That argument from 1996 turned out to be wrong. Co-payments collected from low-priority veterans and private insurance plan billings today cover only 18 percent of the cost of care for group 7 and 8 veterans. By 2009, the annual net cost to VA to treat these veterans totaled $4.4 billion or 11 percent of VA's annual medical appropriation. The figures come from the Congressional Budget Office's annual report to Congress, "Reducing the Deficit: Spending and Revenue Options." Among options it presented this year to the new Congress for reducing VA spending is one to close enrollment in VA care for all veterans in groups 7 and 8 and to cancel the enrollment of veterans currently in two low priority groups. CBO said this would save VA $62 billion in the first 10 years, from 2012 to 2021. But the net savings to the government over the same period, CBO said, would be about half that amount. That's because many of the veterans bumped from VA are old enough or poor enough to use Medicare or Medicaid, which would drive up the cost of those programs. We asked a committee spokesman for comment, both by e-mail and voice mail, but none came in time for this column's deadline. <> The rest of the article is at the link. Gee... didn't Donny, an Iraq war veteran, praise Ryan for the changes he wants to make to Social Security? I wonder how he feels about 1.3 veterans being kicked off of VA Care.
Originally Posted By ecdc >>This is what Soledad O'Brien was arguing with Sununu about.<< I forgot about that - I should've just put this in that thread.
