Comments for Obama's False Medicare Claim »
Posted By ZiegfeldGirl 1 year, 1 month ago in NewsIn a TV ad and in speeches, Obama is making bogus claims that McCain plans to cut $880 billion from Medicare spending and to reduce benefits. The fact is that McCain has never proposed to cut Medicare benefits, or Medicaid benefits either. Obama's claim is based on a false reading of a single Wall Street Journal story, amplified by a one-sided, partisan analysis that piles speculation atop misinterpretation. The Journal story in turn was based on an interview with McCain adviser Holtz-Eakin. He said flatly in a conference call with reporters after the ad was released, "No service is being reduced. Every beneficiary will in the future receive exactly the benefits that they have been promised from the beginning."
Read Full Story at factcheck.org »
RSS Join the Discussion
+ Add CommentComments So Far: 76
-
64%
ZiegfeldGirl1 year, 1 month ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
"Here's how Democrats cooked up their bogus $882 billion claim.
Reply
On Oct. 6, the Journal ran a story saying that McCain planned to pay for his health care plan "in part" through reduced Medicare and Medicaid spending, quoting Holtz-Eakin as its authority. The Journal characterizes these reductions as both "cuts" and "savings." Importantly, Holtz-Eakin did not say that any benefits would be cut, and the one direct quote from him in the article makes clear that he's talking about economies:
Wall Street Journal, Oct. 6: Mr. Holtz-Eakin said the Medicare and Medicaid changes would improve the programs and eliminate fraud, but he didn't detail where the cuts would come from. "It's about giving them the benefit package that has been promised to them by law at lower cost," he said.
Holtz-Eakin complains that the Journal story was "a terrible characterization" of McCain's intentions, but even so it clearly quoted him as saying McCain planned on "giving [Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries] the benefit package that has been promised."
Nevertheless, a Democratic-leaning group quickly twisted his quotes into a report with a headline stating that the McCain plan "requires deep benefit and eligibility cuts in Medicare and Medicaid" – the opposite of what the Journal quoted Holtz-Eakin as saying. The report was issued by the Center for American Progress Action Fund, headed by John D. Podesta, former chief of staff to Democratic President Bill Clinton. The report's authors are a former Clinton administration official, a former aid to Democratic Sen. Bob Kerrey and a former aid to Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski."-
-
50%
GLee1 year, 1 month ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
READ THIS BY THE GREAT ONE:
Reply
From Obama’s books: From Dreams of My Father:'I ceased to advertise my mother's race at the age of 12 or 13, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites.'
From Dreams of My Father : 'I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mother's race.'
From Dreams of My Father:'There was something about him that made me wary, a little too sure of himself, maybe. And white.'
From Dreams of My Father: 'It remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names.'
From Dreams of My Father:'I never emulate white men and brown men whose fates didn't speak to my own. It was into my father's image, the black man, son of Africa , that I'd packed all the attributes I sought in myself , the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, DuBois and Mandela.'
And FINALLY the Most Damning one of ALL of them!!!
From Audacity of Hope:'I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.'·
We CANNOT have someone with this type of mentality running our GREAT nation!! I don't care whether you a Liberal, Democrat, Republican or a Conservative. We CANNOT turn ourselves over to this type of character in a President. PLEASE help spread the word·
GLee
-
-
-
68%
ZiegfeldGirl1 year, 1 month ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
I'm disappointed in the Obama/Biden campaign. They came out promising to be the politics of Change. They were supposed to be new and different, able to win on their own merits without lying about the other guy.
Reply
I guess it's just politics as usual. -
-
-
-
anioklyComment removed: Spammer
-
-
communityorganizerComment removed: Spammer8 Replies
-
Republicrat1844Comment removed: Retracted by user4 Replies
-
69%
nikkibabe1 year, 1 month ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
Yes, his claim is true. Just yesterday when McCain blasted Bush and his policies, here is what he said:
Reply
' Bush supported a multi billion dollar Medicare system '. He has also said previously that Social Security is a "disgrace" while he himself is getting it from age 65. He also says that employer offered health benefits is a "disgrace" and employees should be asked to find their own health insurance.
This maniac is a threat to senior citizens and employees who depend on their employers for health benefits.
He should be stopped at all costs.-
44%
krystaleahs1 year, 1 month ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
It may be true in your opinion, but not factually. You know why Social Security was created right? Not to mention you left out McCain thinks it's a disgrace for the employer to be forced to pay for healthcare. Say a married couple each work for a different company. So then say the wife has good healthcare through her company but the husband doesn't through his company. Why should the employer be forced to give healthcare if the husband can be on his wife's insurance?
Reply
-
-
64%
nikkibabe1 year, 1 month ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
Yes, his claim is true. Just yesterday when McCain blasted Bush and his policies, here is what he said:
Reply
' Bush supported a multi billion dollar Medicare system '. He has also said previously that Social Security is a "disgrace" while he himself is getting it from age 65. He also says that employer offered health benefits is a "disgrace" and employees should be asked to find their own health insurance.
This maniac is a threat to senior citizens and employees who depend on their employers for health benefits.
He should be stopped at all costs. -
55%
nikkibabe1 year, 1 month ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
Quote:
Reply
"Why should the employer be forced to give healthcare if the husband can be on his wife's insurance?"
That is misleading. Either one of them, based on benefits, be on one plan, his or hers. The other employer has nothing to spend.
Plus, the whole employer offered health care is voluntary and no employee is obligated to sign up. They can very well get their health care insurance in the market. However, private insurance does not cover pre-existing conditions for 2 years.-
33%
GehlLady1 year, 1 month ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
I think you may be looking from the other side of the point krystaleahs was making, as I understood it. The employer is required to provide insurance to every employee or pay a tax penalty. I haven't heard him say anything about an exemption for the employer from this tax for emploees that have insurance elsewhere, or don't want/can't afford insurance premiums to be taken out of their paycheck. His only answer has been he'll lower insurance costs. That's beyond the power of the Presidency. He CAN NOT do this. The penalties for businesses will come first, that he can accomplish through his office. Forcing privately held corporations to lower their rates will be a very long time coming. He can't force it legally, he'll have to do it by manipulation of the market. That's dangerous thinking.
Reply
-
-
45%
MERBS1 year, 1 month ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
OH, how sad the Republican sympathizers. It won't change a thing, darlings --- your man is crashing one last time before the "big one". Barack Obama is going to win this thing... big time Chicago politician or not. I think it is good for the country. I never thought this kid was Goldilocks anyway. I'm a grown-up and a realist.
Reply-
63%
GehlLady1 year, 1 month ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
Do you agree with his agenda of forcing grade school children to perform 50 hours community service under the threat of losing federal educational dollars for noncompliance? Do you agree with his call to raise a national civilian security force?
Reply
Colorado July 2, 2008 speech
"We can no longer rely only on our military to acheive the national security objectives we have set. We have to have a national civilian security force that is just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded."
Even if you have no problem with neighbor spying on neighbor, (sound familar?), where does the money come from? He has a hidden agenda. If you actually listen to him, you can hear it. I haven't seen anywhere in his buget proposals where he gets the money to duplicate the funding of our military budget on his private army. -
33%
LADYSMITH1 year, 1 month ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
I read Obama is actually in Hawaii to combat a motion to make his original birth certificate public.
Reply
His grandma was released from the hospital. If she were in bad shape she would still be in the hospital. But why didn't Obama go to her last week when she was admitted to the hospital?
Jerome Corsi has gone to Hawaii now. Hmmm?
If his Kenyan grandma was telling the truth and she was present at his birth in Kenya, THEY WON'T FIND a birth certificate in Hawaii!
Those false Medicare ads are a classis sign Obama is desperate. Could it be that the landslide is happening to Obama right now?
It looks like the only thing he's going to get to do to "spread the wealth" is the millions he's spread to advertising outlets during his campaign!-
67%
CRYMTYPHON1 year, 1 month ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
LADYSMITH said: "I read Obama is actually in Hawaii to combat a motion to make his original birth certificate public"
Reply
Where did you read it?
Why didn't you give a link?
Was it a trustworthy source?
Why does Obama have to go himself?
Since his birth certificate is already public, what is the motion going to do?
Who filed the motion?
Is it the locomotion?
Will you do the locomotion with me?
Final question:
What restraint does your belief in a God of Truth, place upon what you say without examination for veracity?
-
-
-
-
63%
Klarissa1 year, 1 month ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
merbs, how can you a grown-up and a realist, when you don't face facts like this?
Reply
Obama continues to refuse to provide the media with school records, passports, college theses, law school records, law firm clients, medical records, Illinois State Senate files, and other documents about his record.-
80%
willottica1 year, 1 month ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
On the flip side, McCain, accused of treasonous relations with his captors in Viet Nam, is refusing to release his military records, which could clear his name.
Reply
Are those records Obama refuses to provide REALLY any of your business? Are they likely to show evidence for or against treason?
-
-
-
60%
GehlLady1 year, 1 month ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
He keeps saying he will make colledge affordable for all students by tax credits for commnunity service. He doesn't repeat the actual numbers often. As proposed, a student will receive a $4000 tax credit for 100 hrs service. That's $40hr. for a high school student to "volunteer". If they had the skills to be worth $40hr they wouldn't need colledge, for one. For two, add the costs of the government employees, paperwork, equipment and offices to implement this tax credit and now, how much an hour are we paying these high school students?
Reply-
67%
willottica1 year, 1 month ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
Okay, because it's applicable, and because it's an inside joke that the Canadians will likely get and the Americans almost surely won't, I'll ask:
Reply
But are the RE-IMBOURSABLE tax credits??? Are they REIMBOURSABLE???
(Hint: it's from the english-language debates)
-
-
43%
LADYSMITH1 year, 1 month ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
I read Obama is actually in Hawaii to combat a motion to make his original birth certificate public.
Reply
His grandma was released from the hospital. If she were in bad shape she would still be in the hospital. But why didn't Obama go to her last week when she was admitted to the hospital?
Jerome Corsi has gone to Hawaii now. Hmmm?
If his Kenyan grandma was telling the truth and she was present at his birth in Kenya, THEY WON'T FIND a birth certificate in Hawaii!
Could it be that the landslide is happening to Obama right now?-
57%
Bruedaddy1 year, 1 month ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
you're just f u c k i n g stupid.
Reply
You can be in "really bad shape" and be on your death bed AT HOME.
I don't know about his GM but then again I don't need to know.
-I read Obama is actually in Hawaii to combat a motion to make his original birth certificate public.-
wher'd ya hear that? FOX NOISE?
Idiot
-
-
hefaa1Comment removed: Hard Banned
-
44%
galletta61211 year, 1 month ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
OBAMA CERTAINLY IS A SOCIALIST. I DON'T UNDERSTAND THESE TRADITIONAL DEMOCRATS WHO CLAIM TO LOVE THEIR COUNTRY, AND AT THE SAME TIME, THEY WILL VOTE FOR SOMEONE WHO WANTS TO TURN THEIR COUNTRY ON ITS HEAD. YOU GUYS HAVE GOT TO FACE IT., THE PARTY THAT YOUR FATHERS AND GRANDFATHERS SUPPORTED YEARS BACK WHEN IT WAS AN HONORABLE PARTY, IS GONE. THE LEADERS IN YOUR PARTY TODAY ARE ALL PROGRESSIVES., A NICE WORD FOR SOCIALIST. IF YOU BELIEVE IN SOCIALISM, YOUR IN THE RIGHT PARTY. IF YOU TOOK THE TIME TO READ THE WEBSITES OF THE (DSA) DEM. SOC. OF AMERICA, YOU WOULD KNOW THAT YOUR PARTY IS BEING USED TO HATCH THE NEW SOCIALIST PARTY OF AMERICA. ITS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY TEARS ITSELF APART. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU SEEN A CONSERVATIVE OR MODERATE DEMOCRAT ON YOUR TV SCREENS. YOU WONT, THEY HAVE NO SAY ANYMORE. YOUR PARTY IS RUN BY A HARD LEFT WHICH DOES NOT SHARE TRADITIONAL DEMOCRATIC VALUES ,THEY ARE A DANGER EVEN TO MOST OF YOU. "REMEMBER THAT.".
Reply-
60%
CRYMTYPHON1 year, 1 month ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
Galleta6121 says: "REMEMBER THAT."
Reply
Kid, if we took note every time someone said we were socialists/marxists/muslim/terrorists because we disagreed with them, it would be a long and dreary day.
No, I think we will forget it.
*The fact I type this in little tiny letters does not mean I am less fervent, galleta6121.
It just means I know how to type.
-
-
43%
galletta61211 year, 1 month ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
ISN'T IT AMAZING, THAT THESE LIBERALS ARE ALWAYS TRYING TO SCARE THE ELDERLY INTO BELIEVING THAT THE MONEY FOR MEDICARE AND SOCIAL SECURITY IS GOING TO RUN OUT. YET YOU NEVER HEAR THEM SAY THAT MONEY FOR WELFARE IS GOING TO RUN OUT. HHHMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!
Reply-
50%
CRYMTYPHON1 year, 1 month ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
THESE LIBERALS ARE ALWAYS TRYING TO SCARE THE ELDERLY
Reply
Question: What terror color-code are we at?
When Bush was running in 2004, we were getting daily updates in red and orange.
Note: I am not going to add a long 'hmmm' to this question, to make it seem thoughtful.
I just remind everyone what deliberate 'fear at election time' looks like.
-
-
-
60%
willottica1 year, 1 month ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
I entered this thread disgusted with the Democratic campaign for what looks like blatant manipulation of the facts. I haven't changed my opinion on the story, BUT
Reply
The Republicans on this thread have reminded me why I find the McCain campaign so disgusting. There is no low point that the Dems will hit that hasn't already been reached and exceeded for dirty and disgustingness from the right.
If I were to have to vote for the lesser of 2 evils, I would vote for the lesser of KNOWN evils, not the lesser of imagined ones. The lesser of imagined evils is the result of the greater campaign evil.
IMO, the lesser KNOWN evil is Obama. Through his words and his actions he has shown to be a decent and respectable person. Through his associations, we can IMAGINE all kinds of terrible things about him.
McCain, by comparison, talks a pretty good game, but also flies off the handle into a rage. They are HIS words and actions that deteriorate foreign relations by singing "bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran." It was HIS action to abandon his first wife after the war. HE supported the illegal war against Iraq from the beginning. HE called his current wife an inappropriate expletive in a public forum.
If we look at what we KNOW about the candidates, rather than what we imagine or suspect, McCain is the not the lesser evil, not by a long shot.-
-
33%
willottica1 year, 1 month ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
I strongly endorse Obama over McCain. I think he will do a much better job... but he has succumbed to the pressure placed on him to get dirty. Or maybe he has never been as clean as I once thought.
Reply
I think Obama is highly intelligent, deeply caring, and with a non-antagonistic foreign policy, will make the US safer from her enemies (or at least reduce the number of those enemies).
This particular ad is a piece of crap, and the Obama campaign should be ashamed to have run it. I'm pretty sure at this point, that they could have won the election without resorting to misrepresenting McCain's position and just being clear about their own.
-
-
-
43%
galletta61211 year, 1 month ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
A PERSON WHO SITS BACK ON THEIR ASS COLLECTING WELFARE, HAS NO RIGHT TO DEMAND HEALTH CARE FOR HIS FAMILY. HEALTH CARE IS NOT A GOD GIVEN RIGHT. A PERSON WHO WORKK'S HARD ALL THEIR LIFE, AND CAN AFFORD IT, SHOULD BE ABLE TO HAVE A BETTER HEALTH CARE PLAN THEN A PERSON WHO ALWAYS HAS THEIR HANDS OUT. WHY SHOULD I HAVE TO STAND IN LINE WITH LOAFERS AT SOME GOVERNMENT CLINIC, WHEN ALL MY LIFE I HAVE PLAYED BY THE RULES, AND PAYED MY OWN WAY IN LIFE.THIS IS WHAT A SOCIALIST OBAMA WILL GIVE US. THERE ARE ALREADY MANY STATE RUN MEDICAID PLANS THESE LOAFERS ARE SUCKING OFF OF, AND SOME OF THESE TAXPAYER FUNDED PROGRAMS PROVIDE BETTER COVERAGE THEN PRIVATE SECTOR PLANS. I RECENTLY WATCHED A SEGMENT ON MY LOCAL NEWS. IT WAS ABOUT PEOPLE WITH NO HEALTH CARE. THEY INTERVIEWED SOME WOMEN WHO SPOKE VERY LITTLE ENGLISH ,OUTSIDE OF A LOCAL EMERGENCY ROOM. SHE COMPLAINED THAT SHE SHOULD NOT HAVE TO USE THE EMERGENCY ROOM WHEN HER CHILDREN GET SICK. SHE EXPLAINED THAT SHE HAS SIX CHILDREN, AND IS PREGNANT TO A SEVENTH. SHE GOES ON TO SAY, "WHAT WILL I DO IF THE GOVERNMENT WILL NOT GIVE THE MONEY FOR ME AND MY CHILDREN TO EAT. I WILL HAVE TO GO BACK TO MY COUNTRY. MY CHILDREN BORN IN AMERICA, THEY ENTITLED TO THESE MONEY. GOVERNMENT NOT GIVE ENOUGH IN CHECK FOR NEW BABY. WHAT I CAN DO?
Reply
ITS AMAZING THAT THIS PERSON, WHO CAN NOT AFFORD TO FEED HER FAMILY, YET KEEPS HAVING THEM AT TAXPAYERS EXPENSE, ACTUALLY BELIEVES IN HER MIND THAT SHE IS ENTITLED TO RECEIVE ALL TYPES OF FUNDING. AND SHE MOST LIKELY IS NOT EVEN A CITIZEN. BUT SOME LIBERAL SOCIAL WORKER,SOMEHOW MADE THIS PERSON BELIEVE SHE HAS A GOD GIVEN RIGHT TO THESE THINGS. HOW MANY MORE MILLIONS OF THESE WOMEN ARE OUT THERE SUCKING OF THE TAXPAYER WHILE WE CANT EVEN MAKE ENDS MEET OURSELVES. WHAT GETS ME EVEN MORE IS, SHE THEN THREATENS TO GO BACK TO HER COUNTRY, AS IF WE WILL BE SORRY FOR LOSING HER. SOMEBODY IS ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL HERE! WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR, A CIVIL WAR.
loading ...
Add a Comment
Sign In With Your Propeller Account
Please keep your comments relevant to this story.
To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.