Quoting a song lyric, Deroy Murdock starts his latest column with the suggestion that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney should send a message to Democratic critics: Before you accuse me, take a look at yourself.
The context is Medicare and efforts to cut funding for the federal health care program targeting seniors.
Republicans are “weakening the safety net,” Obama said Monday. “Romney and Paul Ryan are dead set on slashing seniors’ Medicare benefits to pay for more millionaire tax breaks,” Democratic strategist Kelly Ward wrote donors on Tuesday. “It’s a rigged deal,” Obama political guru David Axelrod told MSNBC on Thursday. “The Ryan budget, endorsed by Mitt Romney, would end Medicare,” screamed MoveOn.org.
Unfortunately for Democrats, who have sung this song since last year, the truth refuses to harmonize with their vocals. Indeed, PolitiFact.org PolitiFact.com crowned the Left’s “Republicans voted to end Medicare” mendacity as “the 2011 Lie of the Year.”
The Washington Post caught Democrats with their hands, arms, and shoulders in the Medicare cookie jar.
“Romney is right,” read last Tuesday’s WashingtonPost.com headline. “Obamacare cuts Medicare by $716 billion.” Post Reporter Sarah Kliff’s extensive evidence explains “all the various Medicare cuts Democrats made to pay for the Affordable Care Act” — AKA ObamaCare.
For starters, Congressional Budget Office director Douglas W. Elmendorf wrote House Speaker John Boehner on July 24. Elmendorf determined that if Congress repealed ObamaCare, “spending for Medicare would increase by an estimated $716 billion over that 2013–2022 period.” Conversely, if ObamaCare remains law, so will Obama’s $716 billion in Medicare cuts.
