Campaign 2010

Sep 21, 2012

FACT CHECK: Steve Southerland Attacks Medicare “Cuts” That He Supports

Congressman Steve Southerland attacked his opponent, Al Lawson, for supporting the same Medicare reforms that he voted for as well. As President Clinton said, “It takes some brass to attack a guy for doing what you did.”

Southerland falsely claimed that Lawson supports $716 billion in cuts from Medicare when the truth is that Southerland voted for the same $716 billion in Medicare reforms. President Bill Clinton recently explained that the $716 billion Republicans reference “cut unwarranted subsidies to providers and insurance companies” and “there were no cuts to benefits at all. None.” As Politifact and Factcheck.org noted, these reforms do not cut Medicare benefits.

The truth for Florida seniors is that Congressman Southerland supported Congressman Ryan’s budget which turns Medicare into a voucher program and raises health care costs for seniors by $6,400 a year according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.

FACT CHECK

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]

  • In a series of news releases dealing with the national health care reform law, the National Republican Congressional Committee claimed 37 House Democrats were “willing to jeopardize seniors’ access to coverage by gutting $741 billion from Medicare” to pay for a “big-government healthcare takeover.” PolitiFact wrote “There’s only one ruling for such heated and misleading claims: Pants on Fire!” [PolitiFact, 8/19/12]
  • 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]
  • CBS news called the attack “dubious” and wrote: “it's not the patients who would lose money. It's the providers.” [CBS News, 8/15/12]

Republicans 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  Under the 2011 Ryan plan bill approved by nearly every House Republican, ObamaCare would have been repealed almost entirely – except when it came to the Medicare reductions in future reimbursement rates to hospitals and drug and insurance companies.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]

  • “House Republicans have voted twice since 2010 for the same 10-year, $500 billion savings in supporting Mr. Ryan’s annual budgets.” [New York Times, 7/7/12]
  • Similarly, Bloomberg News recently reported: “Republicans assume the same savings in their own budget blueprint crafted by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan.”  [Bloomberg News, 6/28/12]
  • “Republicans, including House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, have been critical of Democrats for cutting $500 billion from the program over a decade as part of their health-care overhaul. Still, the House Republican budget written by Ryan retains the cuts.” [Bloomberg, 3/29/12]

Congressman Southerland  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]

  • The Economist: The House Republican budget "ends the guarantee that all American seniors will have health insurance." [The Economist, 4/5/11]
  • Wall Street Journal: The Republican budget “would essentially end Medicare, which now pays most of the health-care bills for 48 million elderly and disabled Americans, as a program that directly pays those bills.” [Wall Street Journal, 4/4/11]
  • McClatchy: The House Republican budget “effectively would end Medicare for seniors.” [McClatchy-Tribune News Service, 4/5/11]

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