Paul Ryan to seniors: Obamacare threatens Medicare
Washington (CNN) – In a speech to seniors on Friday, Republican vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan will warn them about the threat of Obamacare when he appears at the AARP conference after President Barack Obama addresses the group via satellite.
Mitt Romney’s running mate will speak at the AARP Life@50+ conference, held in New Orleans, at 12:30 p.m. ET. President Barack Obama is scheduled to speak live, via satellite, at 11:45 a.m. ET. Members of AARP – a nonprofit organization and a powerful lobbying group that boasts of having more than 37 million members – were encouraged to submit questions to the nominees on their website.
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As both campaigns make the case for ensuring long-term solvency of Medicare and Social Security, Ryan is expected to talk about “years of empty promises by both political parties.”
He will explain why they want to get rid of Obamacare by accusing the president of cutting the entitlement program to pay for the health care law, officially named The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
"The first step to a stronger Medicare is to repeal Obamacare, because it represents the worst of both worlds. It weakens Medicare for today’s seniors and puts it at risk for the next generation,” according to Ryan’s prepared remarks. “First, it funnels $716 billion out of Medicare to pay for a new entitlement we didn’t even ask for. Second, it puts 15 unelected bureaucrats in charge of Medicare’s future."
The unelected bureaucrats he refers to are part of the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) that has been charged with meeting a budget target in Medicare. Established under Obamacare, IPAB has the authority to make changes to the entitlement program, which previously would have required an act of Congress to take effect.
As Romney often does, Ryan is expected to take a swipe at the Democratic incumbent’s reelection slogan. The released excerpts include, “But you know President Obama’s slogan, right? Forward. Forward into a future where seniors are denied the care they earned because a bureaucrat decided it wasn’t worth the money.”
Since the presumptive Republican nominee announced the seven-term congressman as his running mate, Medicare has become a much-battled-about issue on the campaign trail.
The Obama campaign and fellow Democrats instantly attacked Ryan over the budget plan that he introduced in the House, terming it a "radical plan" that would benefit the rich at the detriment to the middle-class, and they highlighted his proposals to alter Medicare, which they said would "end Medicare as we know it."
The president and his re-election campaign have pushed back against the GOP attacks. They aired a television commercial in key battleground states that rebuts the Romney-Ryan charges with a narrator in the spot that said, “the non-partisan AARP says Obamacare ‘cracks down on Medicare fraud, waste, and abuse,’ and strengthens guaranteed benefits.”
And the commercial criticizes the Ryan proposals on Medicare, with the announcer adding that "AARP says it would undermine Medicare and could lead to higher costs for seniors. And experts say Ryan's voucher plan could raise future retirees’ costs more than $6,000."
On Thursday, one day before Ryan’s address to seniors at the AARP convention and prior to campaign stops in Florida Friday and Saturday, the Romney campaign released a television ad about Medicare reform starring Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.
Like Rubio mentioned his mother in the ad Ryan has also turned to his mother to help convey the message that they intend to fix the program but have vowed it will not change it for current seniors.
His mother, Betty Douglas, a retiree who lives part-time in Florida, first appeared with Ryan last month at a speech at The Villages, and she is expected to accompany her son to New Orleans.
"Whenever I think about the challenges we’re facing, I think of my Mom. Whether it’s the mid-career worker who has to start over, the senior who relies on Medicare today, or the grandparent who wants to make sure her grandkids inherit a stronger America, she is my inspiration,” Ryan will say of his mother, who started an interior decoration business and went to school at the University of Wisconsin.
“Because I had such a strong example in my own life, I have an unshakeable belief in the resilience, wisdom and ability of the American people to solve these problems.”
–CNN's Paul Steinhauser and Gregory Wallace contributed to this report.
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Lyin Ryan" I can't wait to put my mom in the grave so I don't have to take care of her anymore."
Ryan is worried about Medicare, huh? His own budget contains the same savings cuts as Obamacare, but Ryan puts the extra cost on the backs of seniors, where Obamacare reduces payments to providers.
Ryan wants to voucherize Medicare, forcing seniors to pay more for the same coverage, or just go without services and lifesaving medicines.
Ryan clearly doesn't give a hoot about seniors.
Translation... Your parents get full medicare, you and your children each get a shiney new nickle.
When all else fails, lie, and scare old people.
From day one, it was required by all parities that the healthcare plan would not destroy Medicare.
The ONLY people that want to destroy medicare but cutting benefits for more tax welfare for the wealthy, are Romney and Ryan. Remember the 47% comment by Romney?
Ryan is a punk.
Fear, it's all that's left! The race is over!
Obama 2012
Only in republican land, could Lyin Ryan say that his plan of removing $716 billion from medicare and giving it in the form of tax cuts will strengthen medicare. 'Pants on fire' lies is his campaign norm.
To lie like he does is so catholic. Ayn Ryan has no scruples.
Ryan/Romney ticket threatens the whole country
Give it up, Ryan, the jig is up.
What a liar Ryan is. It actually props it up by 8 additional years.
If he lies to get in office, imagine the lies he will continue to tell so that the republicans can finally dismember soc. sec. and medicare.
Obama/Biden 2012 (2 weeks and a few days to early voting folks)
Pants on Fire much?
No Mr. Ryan. Obama care doesn't threaten Medicare. You and your plan threatens Medicare.
Lyin Ryan...cnn, get a new picture...this is so old!
Ryan better watch out on these seniors,they're not afraid of calling him out on these scare tactics republicans are famous for.We Democrates took a page from republicans play book in the nuclear bomb ad about Goldwater using one if president in the campaign against LBJ,it worked didn't it.But Ryans going to be speaking to seniors with AARP ,who are knowledgeable about Medicare and have probibly read the ACA health plan cover to cover. He better watch out because as a rule bad news about someone always travels faster than good news and is harder to get rid of or correct,that's evident in McCain also calling out Pres.Obama as a socialist or redistributor of wealth,it didn't stick but it sure hurt McCains losing the presidency didn't it!!Ryans getting caught more and more on his lies,Romney you'd expect because mormons are taught telling lies to gentiles are regarded as religiously safe,normal,so Romney as a pathelogical liar really doesn't know any better ,he grew up telling lies why change ...And Romneys staffers are working extra hard in the damage control unit because of his misleading unfactual statements in days past and he'd better watch out because at the debates Pres.Obama will call him out publicly on these lies,president did state that Romney shoots from his mouth first than aims later didn't he but that's your multiple choice candidate,if you don't like what he says now just wait he'll give ya something different later,such a pathedic,politically inept candidate,a typical republican !!
Ryan has stated in his book he wants to do away with both Social Security and Medicare, he is a lying Ayn Rand worshipping economic Lamprey who would suck the last penny out of anyone unfortunate enough to get in his way.
Another lie from Ryan& Romney.I'm sooo surprised!!!
Sure go ahead seniors, listen to lyin Ryan the Voucher king. Two pathological liars on the same ticket. SCARY.
OBAMA 2012!
Paul Ryan is part of the team of 4 who have been blocking all legislation to get the country back on it's economic feet. Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner and Eric Cantor have killed 3 jobs bills the President sent to the Congressional House for approval. Ryan and his friends are the main culprits to the country's problems. Yet have the gall to go out and blame the President for all the harm they are doing to the country and the American people.
As usual, the opposite of what the extreme right says is closer to the truth. I don't know which is worse. They thinking we are dumb enough to buy this stuff, or they believing it themselves.
Isn't that photo of Paul and his mother , didn't she make her fortune on government contracts ?
Ryan and Romney = Slow death panel , real slow.
No, Romney,Ryan and the rest of the "party of No" threaten Medicare!
Sorry lyin Ryan but you're more of a threat to Medicare than Obamacare.
Hey, CNN, stop calling it "Obamacare," It's the "Healthcare Reform Act." It's for everybody...and it was a bi-partisan act. Stop perpetuating the disparaging moniker. You're a news organization, not an arm of the Republican PR machine.
liar, liar ..pants on fire
"15 un-elected bureaucrats"? Hmmm. Like the 12 un-elected judges that put our presidency up for sale to the highest bidder?