Ryan's rhetoric earns the GOP two WaPo "Pinocchios" (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque, with enhancements)
Take note,
PolitiFact and Columbia Journalism Review. While their fact-checking focused on the semantics of the DCCC's ad saying the GOP intended to "end Medicare," with their budget plan, the
Washington Post decided to actually fact check
Republican claims about the plan.
During the congressional recess, Rep. Ryan and other Republican lawmakers have been selling their proposal to restructure Medicare with what appears to be a poll-tested phrase: It will be similar to a system “just like” what members of Congress have. The phrase pops up in all sorts of news releases and interviews with members of Congress, as well as no less than five times in the budget plan crafted by Rep. Ryan....
The implication is that if it’s good enough for us, it is good enough for you.... Ryan’s phrase is alluring—many Americans apparently believe that members of Congress get great benefits — but is it accurate?
...The focus on “a system just like members of Congress and federal employees have” suggests that this would be something better than the typical employee plan. But it will not have a key feature of the current plan—a promise that the government will pick up 75 percent of the health-care tab....
...We think the reference to the health plan for members of Congress gives a false and misleading impression to ordinary people.
That rates "Two Pinocchios" for the WaPo fact checker, which means: "Significant omissions and/or exaggerations." That's true of about everything the GOP has said about the program, from how it won't hurt anyone over 55 to how it "will save Medicare for future generations," when it would actually bankrupt future generations.
