Serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis. © James Conner.

 

1 October 2014

How Zinke and Romney lie about John Lewis and Medicare

Aaron Flint reports Ryan Zinke is running a new radio ad featuring failed Presidential candidate Mitt Romney accusing John Lewis of cutting Medicare.

First, the script. Then, how Romney lied.

Script

Hi, this is Mitt Romney. I just want to take a moment to get some facts straight.

In Montana’s Congressional race you’re choosing between Ryan Zinke, a man who served our country as a U.S. Navy SEAL for twenty-two years. And, John Lewis, one of the people who helped write the failed Obamacare legislation.

Mr. Lewis is running ads claiming that Ryan Zinke will cut Medicare. But the opposite is true. Mr. Lewis already cut it! John Lewis and Barack Obama created Obamacare by cutting seven hundred billion dollars from your Medicare.

John Lewis did that. That’s the truth. Send a very strong and honest Ryan Zinke to Congress to protect Montana’s seniors.

I’m Ryan Zinke, candidate for U.S. Congress, and I approve this message. Paid for by Zinke for Congress.

Mitt’s first lie

Romney’s lie: Lewis helped write the affordable care act. The truth: Liz Fowler, Sen. Max Baucus’ chief health care aide, helped write the Affordable Care Act. Here’s what Baucus said:

I wish to single out one person, and that one person is sitting next to me. Her name is Liz Fowler. Liz Fowler is my chief health counsel. Liz Fowler has put my health care team together. Liz Fowler worked for me many years ago, left for the private sector, and then came back when she realized she could be there at the creation of health care reform because she wanted that to be, in a certain sense, her profession lifetime goal. She put together the White Paper last November — 2008 — the 87-page document which became the basis, the foundation, the blueprint from which almost all health care measures in all bills on both sides of the aisle came.

Where was Lewis when Liz was helping write the ACA? In Montana, working as Baucus’ state director.

So why is Romney lying that Lewis instead of Fowler wrote the ACA? Because Lewis, not Fowler, is on the ballot.

Mitt’s second lie

Romney’s lie: the ACA cuts Medicare by $700 billion (if you think you heard this before, you did, in Romney’s 2012 campaign). The truth: under the ACA, Medicare spending increases 5.6 percent per year instead of 6.8 percent per year. Over time, the savings add up to $500 or $716 billion depending on the time frame analyzed. But in Republican campaign lingo, those savings are called cuts. ACA proponents believe the saving is produced by greater efficiency (benefits to Medicare members are not reduced). But Romney, Zinke, and especially Paul Ryan want you to believe that the ACA reduces grandma’s Medicare benefits and hastens her death.

A lot of older people, especially those living alone, listen to the radio. It’s how they grew up, and now that their social lives are contracting, the radio keeps them company. Romney’s dishonest radio ad will reach many seniors and perhaps frighten some into voting for the Republican, Zinke, who on social insurance is turning out to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing.