Aug 15, 2012

FACT CHECK: Congressman Allen West Falsely Claims To Be Protecting Seniors

In a new television ad, Congressman Allen West (FL-18) today falsely claimed to be protecting seniors and claimed that his opponent, Patrick Murphy, would cut Medicare benefits.

The truth is that Congressman West is the one who voted for the Ryan budgets that ends Medicare and raises health care costs for seniors by $6,400 according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, while giving a $265,000 tax break to millionaires. The reality is that Congressman West supported the same savings from insurance company subsidies, waste and fraud that he is now attacking Murphy for. Both Factcheck.org and Politifact have found these savings would not impact Medicare benefits for seniors at all.

Bloomberg News reported this week that 'Ryan’s budget bill also would end traditional Medicare.' The Miami Herald even said that 'Ryan’s plan would likely cost future seniors more in out of pocket expenses due to the way it calls for a voucher-like premium-support system.'

FACT CHECK:

Bloomberg: The Affordable Care Act Does Not Cut Medicare Benefits. “The 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that Obama pushed for doesn’t cut Medicare; it simply reduces projected future increases in costs by $700 billion over 10 years.” [Bloomberg, 8/13/12]

PolitiFact: The Affordable Care Act Does Not Cut Current Medicare Benefits. As PolitFact noted, “The bill doesn't take money out of the current Medicare budget but, rather, it attempts to slow the program's future growth, curtailing just over $500 billion in anticipated spending increases over the next 10 years.” [PolitiFact.com, 9/12/11]

FactCheck.Org: The Affordable Care Act Does Not Cut Current Medicare Benefits. FactCheck.org has written “time and again” how “misleading” the charge is. “The law calls for $555 billion in cuts in future growth of the program – over 10 years. The total projected cost of Medicare over that time, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, is $7.1 trillion, even with the cuts.” [FactCheck.org, 9/17/10]

Congressman Allen West Voted for Budgets With the Wrong Priorities. Congressman West voted for two budgets authored by Congressman Paul Ryan. These budgets that would end Medicare’s guaranteed benefit, protect $40 billion in tax breaks for big oil, and provide people earning more than $1 million a year with an average tax cut of $265,000. Additionally, the Congressional Budget Office estimated it will increase health care costs by an extra $6,359 by 2022 for future Medicare beneficiaries, while the Center for American progress has claimed that it is likely that that a middle-class family with two kids making about $70,000 a year would pay about $1,150 more in income tax. [H Con. Res. 34, Vote #277, 4/15/11; H Con Res 112, Vote #151, 3/29/12; Center for American Progress, 3/20/12; Center for American Progress, 3/20/12; Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, 3/27/12; Tax Policy Center, Table T12-0078 and T10-0132; Citizens for Tax Justice, 3/22/12; CBO, 4/5/11; CNN, 3/23/12]

Congressman Allen West Voted to End Traditional Medicare. “Ryan’s budget bill also would end traditional Medicare by capping spending and offer vouchers to buy private insurance.” [Bloomberg, 8/13/12]

Congressman Allen West Voted for Kept The Same Medicare Savings. House Republicans “voted for the same Medicare cuts as president Obama’s health plan known as ObamaCare.  Under the 2011 Ryan plan bill approved by nearly every House Republican, ObamaCare would have been repealed almost entirely – except when it came to the Medicare reductions in future reimbursement rates to hospitals and drug and insurance companies. So Medicare’s bottom-line spending would have been about the same under ObamaCare or under what some are now calling RyanCare.” [Miami Herald, 8/13/12]

Congressman Allen West Voted Raise Health Care Costs for Seniors. “Ryan’s plan would likely cost future seniors more in out of pocket expenses due to the way it calls for a voucher-like premium-support system.” [Miami Herald, 8/13/12]

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