Sep 07, 2012

National Republicans Fool No One

Congressman Reid Ribble Voted to Raise Medicare Costs for Seniors, But Give Tax Breaks to Outsourcers

Sensing how frustrated Wisconsinites are with Congressman Reid Ribble’s record in Washington forcing Wisconsin seniors to pay $6,400 more for Medicare just to give tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas, National Republicans are desperately launching bogus attacks. In a TV ad, National Republicans stretch credibility by repeating allegations about a government takeover of healthcare and cuts to Medicare that independent factchecking organizations have ridiculed as false. The truth is that Congressman Reid Ribble voted twice for partisan budgets that essentially ended Medicare and raised the cost of health care for seniors while voting to protect health care for himself for life.

 “How can National Republicans keep a straight face talking about Medicare cuts when Congressman Reid Ribble voted for their plan to essentially end Medicare and raise health care costs for seniors by $6,400? ” asked Haley Morris of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “National Republicans’ stunning hypocrisy can’t fool Wisconsin middle class families and seniors, and they can’t change Congressman Reid Ribble’s record of voting to end the current Medicare system just to protect tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. Wisconsin seniors have had enough of Congressman Ribble’s reckless attempts to dismantle Medicare and hike health care costs, and they won’t stand for Washington’s deliberate attempts to deceive them.”

Background

Congressman Ribble Has the Wrong Priorities. House Republicans voted for two budgets authored by Congressman Paul Ryan. The budgets would end Medicare’s guaranteed benefit, protect $40 billion in tax breaks for big oil, provide people earning more than $1 million a year with an average tax cut of $265,000, and create incentives for corporations to shift profits and jobs overseas. Additionally, the Congressional Budget Office estimated it will increase health care costs by an extra $6,359 by 2022 for future Medicare beneficiaries, while a household making between $50,000 and $100,000 would face a tax increase of at least $1,358. [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; Joint Economic Committee, 5/20/11; Joint Economic Committee, 6/20/12]

Congressman Ribble Voted to Allow Members of Congress To Keep Taxpayer Funded Health Insurance.  In 2011, Ribble voted to repeal the historic health care reform bill passed the previous year. According to a report in The Hill newspaper, “[r]epealing President Obama’s healthcare law would let members of Congress keep their government-subsidized insurance coverage after they retire — a benefit they lost under the health law.” [HR 2, Vote #14, 1/19/11; The Hill, 7/09/12]

Congressman Ribble’s Plan Included the Same $700 Billion in Medicare Savings. “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. […] Those same reductions in the future growth of Medicare are contained in the budget bills sponsored by Ryan and approved by the same House Republicans who now say they’ll campaign against the provision.” [Bloomberg, 8/13/12]

PolitiFact's Lie of the Year: ‘A Government Takeover of Health Care.’ “PolitiFact editors and reporters have chosen ‘government takeover of health care’ as the 2010 Lie of the Year. Uttered by dozens of politicians and pundits, it played an important role in shaping public opinion about the health care plan […] By selecting ‘government takeover' as Lie of the Year, PolitiFact is not making a judgment on whether the health care law is good policy. The phrase is simply not true.” [PolitiFact.com, 12/16/10]

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]

FactCheck.org: “Wrong” to Say there is Rationing in Health Care Reform. “But it’s wrong to say that the advisory board will ration care or that it will be run by bureaucrats…” [FactCheck.org, 5/06/11]

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