Romney Whopper, Ready for Ryan, Bush Medicare Fraud, Medicare in Oregon

Even Romney Must Know This Is A Lie

Please give this your full attention:  "Mitt Romney has lied day after day on the campaign trail, but yesterday [Monday] he topped himself when he pledged to preserve Medicare and Social Security at an event in the Sunshine State.  The truth is exactly the opposite: Mitt Romney and the Republicans want to eliminate Medicare and Social Security as we know them and hand them over to Wall Street with a reckless privatization scheme."

"Romney is a staunch supporter of Congressman Paul Ryan's radical budget plan to end Medicare and Medicaid and dramatically increase health care costs for seniors struggling to make ends meet.  Ryan wants to put Medicare beneficiaries at the mercy of profit-mad private health insurance companies and force seniors to fork over at least $6,400 more per year on health care while letting billionaires and corporations skip out on their taxes.  Romney and the Republicans want to strip seniors of new drug benefits and preventive care provided by the Affordable Care Act."

MORE:  Joe Scarborough Skewers Mitt Romney's Vow To 'Never Go After Medicare' (VIDEO)  "... shameful demagoguery ..."

How does Mr. Romney say this (or other outrageous things) with a straight face?  Maybe it is a reckless privatization scheme.  But, hey!  It's only $6,400 more a year.  Gosh, that's less than -- what? -- the monthly lawn care on one of my cottages?  Not too much at all!  Wanna bet?  $10,000!

Medicare As We Used To Know It

"Democrats are licking their chops over the idea of another Republican budget that attempts to dramatically reform the Medicare program.  House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has indicated that his budget will address Medicare and could include the revised plan he crafted with Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon.  Under their plan, seniors would get 'premium support' to help them buy private insurance coverage or traditional Medicare."

"'Here they go again -- House Republicans protecting the ultra-wealthy at the expense of Medicare and higher health care costs for seniors,' said Jesse Ferguson, a spokesman for the DCCC."

Bush and Medicare Fraud

"Jeb Bush personally lobbied the secretary of health and human services while his father was vice president on behalf of a hospital executive who would later be accused of defrauding the government of hundreds of millions of Medicare dollars, The Huffington Post has confirmed.  Miguel Recarey, head of International Medical Centers (IMC), also paid Bush $75,000 in the mid-1980s, money that Bush acknowledges receiving but says was tendered for real estate consultation."

"In 1992, as his father, President George H.W. Bush, ran for reelection, Jeb Bush denied having reached out to HHS Secretary Margaret Heckler on Recarey's behalf, a denial he maintains through a spokeswoman to this day.  ...  But now former Secretary Heckler herself, in an interview with HuffPost, has confirmed that Jeb Bush lobbied her, that she was in favor of renewing the waiver (although she left office before doing so) and that his input played a major role in her thinking.  She said she took his call, and took it seriously.  'Jeb was one that I and friends of the Bushes always thought would be president,' Heckler said."

Oregon Follow Up

Forget the Florida primary, watch Oregon on Medicare -- "The political world is squarely focused on the Florida primary Tuesday, where Mitt Romney is expected to win the latest contest for the Republican nomination.  But if you want to get a sense of where the health policy debate is going in this election cycle, the race you should be watching is all the way across the country.  In a special election in Oregon’s First Congressional District, both parties are testing out their Medicare messages for the coming year."

"Suzanne Bonamici, a Democrat, and Rob Cornilles, a Republican, are vying to fill the seat that’s sat open ever since Rep. David Wu resigned in April.  ...  the two have been trading barbs over Medicare, making it a central issue in the campaign.  As Bonamici put it in a recent debate, 'My opponent on day one of this campaign attacked me on Medicare and Medicare Advantage.'"

For Your Information

The High Cost of Allowing Health Insurers To Continue Keeping Us In The Dark

The Republican Reality-Free Zone

McConnell’s Revisionist History: Congress Gave Obama Everything He Wanted!

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