To: Congressional Republicans
Fr: Democratic Leader’s Press Office
Dt: May 25, 2011
Re: Putting it in all CAPS Doesn’t Make It True – You Voted to End Medicare

Your Budget Committee Chair and author of the misnamed “Path to Prosperity” budget @RepPaulRyan tweeted this:

Path to Prosperity PRESERVES the Medicare guarantee; Partisan attacks & inaction guarantee Medicare’s collapse: http://j.mp/jCWwoR

It is embarrassing, but not surprising, that your Chairman is flat out making things up to defend your party’s vote to end Medicare. To clear up his distortions, here are the facts on your bill to end Medicare. You voted to:

Make huge cuts in Medicare benefits and raises health care costs for seniors
More than doubling the typical senior’s out-of-pocket health care spending in 2022, compared to what their costs would be under traditional Medicare – increasing their out-of-pocket costs by more than $6,000. [Congressional Budget Office]

End Medicare and put insurance company bureaucrats in charge of seniors’ health care
“The budget resolution eliminates Medicare as we know it, shifting costs onto seniors.” [EPI]

“The Ryan plan would gradually replace Medicare with a system of vouchers that seniors could use to help buy private health insurance.” [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities]

“In 2030, traditional Medicare insurance, CBO estimates, would only cost 60 percent as much as the private options Ryan is offering. But under Ryan’s plan, seniors would pay two-thirds of the cost, while under traditional Medicare, they’d pay only 25 percent. That’s not cost control. That’s cost-shifting.” [Washington Post]

“The plan would essentially end Medicare…” [Wall Street Journal]

And this morning, your leader, Speaker @JohnBoehner tweeted this:

GOP Path to Prosperity preserves & protects Medicare for retirees & future generations & leaves it completely unchanged for those 55 & over

Wowzers. Just so we’re starting from the same place:

com•plete•ly
adverb /kəmˈplētlē/ 
Totally; utterly

un•changed:
adjective /ˌənˈCHānjd/ 
Not changed; unaltered

You voted to “change” Medicare benefits for those 55 and over. You voted to:

Re-open the prescription drug ‘donut hole’ for current Medicare beneficiaries (including for “those 55 & over”)
Nationwide, nearly four million seniors would pay $2.2 billion more for prescription drugs in 2012 alone. [DPCC Report]

Eliminate the free annual wellness visit for current Medicare beneficiaries (including for “those 55 & over”)
This could force at least one million seniors to pay over $110 million more for annual wellness visits in 2012. [DPCC Report]

The American people, starting in New York, have spoken. It’s time for you to stop spinning, listen to your constituents, and join Democrats to strengthen Medicare, not end it.

PS: You might want to think before you retweet.