FACT CHECK DOT ORG TACKLES MEDICARE

This is an ONEROUS, BRUTAL long read about both campaigns claims w/r/t Medicare. The din regarding this incredibly complicated issue got to a point where we, as a nation, are embroiled in the throes of “Did not! Did too!” and I had to take a break. I turned to the reliable FactCheck.org, who have had their work cut out for them this season.

Factcheck.org get it from both sides pretty regularly and it stands to reason that if you’re pissing off lots of different people it is possible you are doing something right.

At any rate: here’s a pull quote from the article, that will take you a while to get to -

So, with most of the Affordable Care Act spending reductions, Ryan’s plan would have cut about $600 billion more from expected Medicare spending than Obama’s.

So there’s that. The Health Care plan is huge, unreadable and complicated — and could have been made less so had there been any good faith Republican attempts at working with a sitting president instead of Mitch McConnell’s brave “trash the car in order to blame the mechanic” approach. This could have been a comprehensive restructuring of a flawed and expensive health care system. But instead, the public option got shut out and insurance companies got a bit of a payday. Disappointing. But not socialism. Not by a damn sight.

Another really good point from the article:

Actually, neither campaign’s plan changes Medicare for current beneficiaries much at all. Both Wilensky and Moon say they don’t see a direct impact on current seniors in either plan.

So maybe we all go easy on telling people that our seniors will be left to die on the curb. And in the interest of bi-partisanship:

We’ve been debunking these claims about Ryan’s plan since 2011, and Democrats continue to criticize the old plan more so than the current one. The Romney-Ryan plan would leave Medicare unchanged for current beneficiaries, and for those age 55 or older.

But seriously. Read the article for yourself.