Congressman Who Voted 3 Times for Medicare Cuts – Blames Obama for Cuts to Medicare

President Obama was elected President of the United States, there have been two consistencies from the Republican party: 

• No matter what President Obama supports, just do the opposite. 
• Blame President Obama for everything, even if it’s something we’ve done. 

There’s also a lesser one where Republicans often like to take credit for positive things going on in the country, when those events are actually due to Obama’s policies. 

In Florida, Republican Representative Tom Rooney is accusing the Affordable Care Act (aka “Obamacare”), and by proxy President Obama, of making deep cuts to the Medicare program. 

Rooney said: 

“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.” 

Actually what “Obamacare” does is reduce spending for Medicare by cutting back on excessive payments the program was paying to some health care providers. You know, companies that were billing Medicare for services that the patient didn’t really need. So while it’s cutting spending, it’s not the same kind of cuts that we’re used to dealing with. It isn’t a direct reduction of funds as much as it is a requirement that Medicare be more efficient with what it’s paying out. 

They’re in no way a reduction in benefits, but provider payouts. 

So, while some might call these “cuts,” what they really are is requirements that make Medicare more efficient. In fact, according to Think Progress, the Affordable Care Act extends the solvency of Medicare by a decade by saving the program $716 billion. 

It’s easy to see how some Republicans could spin this into an attack on “Obamacare” and President Obama. Let’s not forget the recent CBO report that said “Obamacare” could reduce the workforce by 2.5 million workers – except that’s not what Republicans said. Instead, Republicans blatantly lied, claiming that the results of the CBO report said “Obamacare” would cost 2.5 million jobs. Which is of course a gross distortion of the truth. 

Now, this obvious attempt to mislead voters by Representative Rooney is bad enough. But it gets worse. You see, Mr. Rooney himself voted for these same “cuts” three different times. Yet now he wants to act appalled by them. See, these are the same type of cuts that Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan has proposed in every single one of his budgets in 2011, 2011 and 2013. Budgets that Mr. Rooney and the vast majority of House Republicans voted for. 

 It’s absolutely comical, and hypocritical, for someone like Representative Rooney to now come out trying to slam the president for Medicare “cuts” when: 

1. They’re not actually cuts. 
2. It’s essentially the same exact thing he’s voted for three times. 

But it’s just more of the same from the Republican party. Doing anything and everything to blame something on President Obama, even if it’s something they’ve previously supported.