That's tea party Rep. Tom Rooney (R-FL), delivering the Republican response to President Obama's weekly address Saturday. Here's the
heart of his message: that tired old Medicare cuts lie.
Rep. Tom Rooney (R-FL) slammed President Barack Obama’s signature health care law during the weekly GOP address on Saturday, arguing that the Affordable Care Act hurts seniors. “Here’s the reality — to help pay for his health care law, the president made deep cuts to the successful Medicare Advantage plan, which serves almost 30 percent of all Medicare beneficiaries,” said Rooney, adding that the cuts are causing seniors to lose access to care.
Yes, the same cuts to insurance companies through the Medicare Advantage (not to Medicare benefits) that Republicans have been lying about since 2010. These cuts have helped to shore up Medicare financially for at least another decade, without harming seniors. That's why Rep. Paul Ryan put these very same cuts in his 2011, 2012, and 2013 budgets, which
House Republicans voted for nearly unanimously, every year. These are the cuts that Rep. Rooney voted for, every year.
You might remember that the whiz kid wonky wonderboy of the GOP couldn't get his budget numbers to actually work unless he used those same cuts. And you'll probably also remember that Ryan still ran with Mitt Romney on the big lie of those cuts in 2012. The lie worked for Republicans once, in 2010, so they apparently have decided they'll just stick with it.