Mitt Romney turned 65 today, and decided to celebrate his Medicare eligibility by ... lying about Medicare.
As part of an effort to reverse the public's perception of the parties' positions on Medicare, Mitt Romney's campaign is appropriating a common Democratic attack and using it against President Obama. To wit, it's Obama, not Romney and the GOP, who plans to "end Medicare as we know it."
Brian Beutler does a nice job taking apart Romney's Medicare claims in great detail, noting among other things that Romney has endorsed Paul Ryan's budget plan, which scraps the existing Medicare program and replaces it with a voucher scheme, making the larger argument rather ironic.
It's also worth mentioning that Romney's new offensive repeats a bizarre contradiction from a month ago: Obama is "cutting" Medicare while also doing nothing to cut Medicare. (The Republican campaign should pick one or the other, but let's not forget that the "cut" claim is itself a lie.)
And while we're at it, it was especially entertaining to see the Romney campaign say the president's re-election campaign should "have the courage" to put forward Obama's real intentions on Medicare -- this from the candidate who won't put forward a detailed plan of its own.
But there's a larger context to all of this. Greg Sargent explained, "This is all about muddying the waters in advance of a debate that could cut badly against Romney. The GOP primary forced him to embrace Ryancare; Dems are going to hammer him over it. So the Romney camp is trying to get out front by blurring lines and sowing confusion over who actually is defending traditional Medicare and who would end the program's fundamental mission as we know it. The question is whether this, too, will be treated as just part of the game."
Right on cue, Ben Smith joked about Romney's Medicare deceptions, writing, "Exposed: There is gambling going on in this establishment."
I can appreciate why the Romney campaign's dishonesty on Medicare is dismissed as yet another eye-rolling development. After all, the GOP frontrunner has chosen to run a campaign that's not exactly truth-oriented.
But when we're dealing with one of the year's most important policy disputes, and the leading Republican contender gets caught lying blatantly, media professionals are making a mistake when they do little more than shrug their shoulders. When reporters get so inured to Romney's dishonesty that it no longer seems interesting or noteworthy, it sends a signal to the political world that facts and honesty simply don't matter anymore, and campaigns should come down to which candidate can tell better lies.
When Romney sees his misleading rhetoric met with "Casablanca" jokes, it only encourages him to see what else he can get away with.
Leave a Comment:
As the Republican Presidential Candidates are playing cowboys and indian's in the south are they saying giddy up lil horsey.
Mittens will be an unending (at least until November) source of materials for Mr. Benen's weekly "Mitt's Lies and Prevarications" column.
Whoa horsey.......If I am gonna get Free Government Health Care (for life) as a Senator, Congressman and POTUS, Why would I not be for affordable government backed health care for all Americans? You're asking the American People to wrestle with privatized health care crooks; while you receive FREE GOVERNMENT HEALTH CARE FOR LIFE.
How does any hard working citizen, who is struggling to make ends meet, thinks this is FAIR.
tried to post under @Deb...don't know what happened. Sorry @SadOldVeteran
"How does any hard working citizen, who is struggling to make ends meet, thinks this is FAIR."
The rethugnikan double-speak it's called "free-market - you choose your healthcare" - never mind that your employer doesn't offer it, or the fact that it's cost prohibitive, or doesn't have enough coverage, or denied you due to a pre-existing condition - it's out there and if you're motivated you will find a plan!
Meanwhile back at the farm, I've got 2 words for every voting age American "Ryan care" which should be enough to scare the begeebus out of everyone that votes for a republican anywhere in the USA!!!
This tactic may work in the Republican primaries, but Romney is going to have major problems explaining away his lies when he has to face Obama. Romney will have to debate Obama and that is not going to turn out very well for Mitt. Disavow Ryancare and explain what programs are going to be cut or embrace Ryancare. The first will lose the Republican base and the latter will lose the middle class and independents and these are the people he needs to get elected.
This tactic worked in 2010 and they are going to try to play it again. They won in 2010 by claiming that Democrats wanted to destroy Medicare and that they were going to create jobs. They got into office and promptly tried to destroy Medicare and did nothing to create jobs. They did however pass a lot of anti-women and anti-voting legislation
and they seem to be counting on either really short memories among the electorate, lots of low info voters voting their beliefs not facts or they are plain nuts. i list 'em you decide.
interesting to see the pros like Steve Schmidt cringe when ask about how the party will do.
It seems like there are sexual instruction books that discuss fewer positions than Mitt has taken on Medicare...
Romney has not been able to grasp the concept that video lives on long after the speech.
And I have this flash image of the Kama Sutra with a new title ...
Dee Kat: But when they ran in 2010, they promised to focus on "Jobs and the Economy." What have they done since? Rant about abortion, and create gridlock.
Also, 2010 was a mid-term which historically has lower voter turnout than a Presidential election, and I think a lot of people (mistakenly) figured that since they'd voted in Obama in '08, things would be OK.
I hope to see a repeat of the 2008 results, in 2012.
Can someone explain their solutions to Medicare, Medicaid and SS. Many projections predict they will run out of money shortly. Whether it's 5 or 15 years, shouldn't we be talking about it now. At least the Repubs have put something on the table. The Dems ignore it
Actually no Dems do not. Democrats have long advocated that we lift the cap on SS and medicare payments and reform medicaid. Democrats have also advocated that we repeal the medicare bill put into place by G.W. Bush. However all these proposals have been turned down and haven't been able to gain enough support to get traction. Every time Democrats propose these options it's labeled as a tax increase or as destroying Medicare. Which, of course, neither of these options do. In fact both of these options would pay for themselves over time, completely resolve the long term debt situation regarding these programs, and would do so w/o altering benefits. But that's a solution no one wants to undertake. Bernie Sanders- just as an FYI- has been the biggest advocate for these changes. He's only been talking about doing as much...oh, ya know, for almost 10 years.
If they were smart the Richy riches would stay away from the Medicare and Social Security subject and focus on the more important issue of tax reform that could even fatten their wallets a little more. I'm sure they're calling him right now and he'll flip his position again. It'll be interesting to see what he talks about next. Probably trees.
I was really amazed that he showed up in Arizona and didn't comment on the height of the saguaro cactus.
and what else can he say about trees ,In michigan they are all the right size!
I wonder if someone could run with the "Not meant to be a factual statement" after every GOP statement that's out there and follow that up WITH the facts.
Would someone in the media just please ask any of these guys about the Commandment that says, "Thou shalt not bear false witness.."? Someone? Anyone? Please use their holier than thou language against them.
I'm still waiting for that 'someone/anyone' person. Barring that, a few well-aimed lightening bolts would be fabulously instructive.
Ain't it sweet the way we have avoided the old "liar,liar pants on fire" rant? Bless his little heart he's just misguided and illinformed.
Repeat a lie often enough and they or at least YOU will start beliving it.
Off subject- but, your phrase on the other story, Paul made my day. I don't know if it was said before but, it needs to be said again. Spring at last, Spring at last , Thank God Almighty it's Spring at last!!!
Speak for yourself. It's been lovely lately, but last night I had to start using the house fan to keep the place from getting too hot during the day. Oh, it's only in the mid-80s so far but I've lived here long enough to know that 100+ is only a couple of months away. And then there's July, when even the evaporative coolers quit working.
After April, it's hide inside until November.
Hate to say it, but I'm getting worried. Romney has opened up a 20% lead over Obama in non-college educated white voters. It will take a herculean effort to hold the women's vote advantage and put Obama over the top once the really big Koch Bros. cash starts rolling in.
but, but, Sir! Mitt went to college. Several of them!
Now, if we could just get the two of them at a church picnic, drinkin' some beers and shootin' some hoops. . .
Of course Mitt don't imbibe, and horseshoes is more his sport. Thank the Lord there's no bowling at church picnics.
Don't worry, I'm a non college-educated white person who will not be voting for RMoney. It helps if you have street smarts when you've lost your house and your husband has lost his job.
I think Howard meant "white males." We've been hearing from the Right so long that we forget to correct for their condescending attitude towards those who were so unfortunate as to be born without a penis.
That's one poll, so far as I've read, and it was 4 points, not 20. These things go up and down daily, and much depends on the sampling, the phrasing of the questions, etc.
we will see!
With his wealth he should do the right thing and refuse to use Medicare, he sure as hell does not need any help paying his bills. In fact what was saved on Mitt could be used to help some elderly folks who are really in need.
The problem Steve identifies is real and widespread.
First, low information voters have neither the time nor the interest to ferret out whether a candidate spent the day contradicting what he said yesterday, let alone last week. So they rely on what they think they remember about the last statement they heard, and whether or not they agreed with it. This is compounded by the second issue.
Reporters covering a campaign often don't bother to report on how today's speeches were a direct opposite of what the candidate said yesterday because they don't want to get into a fight with their editors or producers back home. They fall back on herd mentality, conventional wisdom or what the boss back home wants today's coverage to be about.
It reminds me of a story the late John Chancellor, NBC reporter and then anchor, told me far too many years ago about when he was covering the civil rights movement in the South during the Sixties as a young correspondent. He was ready to feed a report to New York on the story he was filing for the "Nightly News" and read his voice-over script to a producer.
"But, John, that's not what The New York Times is saying," Chancellor was told.
"Well, we don't get the Times down here," came the reply.
"But that's not what AP and UPI are saying, either," the producer insisted.
"I don't have AP or UPI where I am," Chancellor explained to New York.
"Well, if you don't get the Times and you don't have access to the wires, where are you getting your information?"
I suspect the travelling circus of journalists covering the Republican candidates could tell their own, updated versions of Chancellor's anecdote. As a result, the real story of a campaign is left to be written after all of the votes are counted in November and somebody gets an advance to write a book about all of it.
Whoops! My bad. Back in the Sixties, Nightly News was called the Huntley-Brinkley Report. Apologies to all.
I actually learned more by watching msnbc. I don't agree with everything but, I did get my Mom to start watching it. If we were to drop hints to people or members of our family without starting a war, and tell them about msnbc that might help. I always had an interest for politics though I used to watch Meet The Press when I was around 10 yrs. old and the documentary "An American Family" when I was a teen. Does anyone remember Lance?
War on women—war on girls
http://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/cookie-monsters-religious-right-marks-anniversary-of-girl-scouts-with-bogus
Go out and buy some Girl Scout cookies today.
Are we really expected to go after The Boy Scouts now?
Better yet, make a donation. Far, far fewer calories and the money actually goes to the Scouts. If you look up the amount that the Scouts actually get from cookie sales, you'll see what I mean.
Good point! Here is the page: http://www.girlscouts.org/support/
We need to generate a "Not meant to be a factual statement" moment for Mr Romney.
Maybe "#mitts best lie" or something like that.
How about a contest of see who can list the total number of fabrications by Mr Romney during the campaign? Kind of a negative X prize?
It could amount to crowd sourcing Steve's "Mitts Mendacity" feature.
It makes sense in a way, Steve is very productive but keeping up with Mitts lies is an over whelming task for any one person. How can we help?
It is clearly a full time job keeping up with Mitt's lies and flops. But the important challenge is how to get them, and their exposure as lies, out to where more voters are aware of them. Getting them out to MSNBC viewers is not nearly enough. As Charley points out, most reporters aren't interested in doing that much work and probably can't get past their editors anyway.
I think this needs its own website, and then get some PAC to promote it.
So Romney won't be enrolling in Medicare because he is attempting to court anti-government conservatives who hate anything run by the federal government or because he is a super-rich dude who has multiple offshore bank accounts in the Caymans and doesn't need no stinkin' Medicare? Either reason is pretty lame and pretty damaging for Romney, who still has all the character and charisma of soggy cardboard, just with gold coins oozing out of every pore... http://www.sunstateactivist.org
In many ways, we're trying to get the regular media to cover the meta-story we've been following so keenly, to wit: the regular press (let's use poor David Gregory as our not-so-straw man) looks at R-Money's remarks and says "GOP frontrunner accuses Obama of cutting Medicare." But we look at those remarks and say, "GOP frontrunner lies." Our POV is a story about the tale R-Money wants to tell. Gregory's story is just repeating the R-Money line, noting that Obama disagrees.
At bottom, our story is about the chutzpah, cravenness and hackery of the GOP. This is the tale that David Gregory is going to end up telling: a meta-tale about the tale.
(I'm not putting this well, but I hope you all get the idea.)
Best thing I heard today: Cynthia Tucker on Hardball - "Mitt Romney should be himself - A ROBOTIC RICH GUY".
I know 50% of Americans are below average. I just didn't realize the midpoint was so low.
The demonstrated inability of many Americans to engage in critical thinking is good reason to work for better schools and fewer prisons. We should ask ourselves, where do we want our children educated? In a new school, or a new prison? Since we are currently spending more on prisons than on schools, we seem to be choosing the latter. Our incarceration rate is the highest in the world, easily exceeding that of any "oppressive" regime The US has 5% of the world's population but 25% of the world's prisoners. Something is wrong with our priorities and our approach to dealing with problems.
One issue always frustrates me when the republicans hail the Paul Ryan budget plan the "save all", the only rebutal is the effort to convert Medicare into a coupon system. There were other interesting and irresponsible issues within the bill. Contrary to Tea Party and republican messaging, deficit spending would continue resulting in a $23.2 trillion debt and an increased annual requirement of $900 billion on the interest ALONE. $200 billion greater than the annual defense budget of 2021. Yet no one notes the hyprocrisy nor the fiscally irresponsible behavior this represents...why?
The annual share of the U.S. budget spent on programs benefiting seniors has increased rapidly in the past few decades. More importantly is that these same programs under current law are expected to continue to increase rapidly in decades to come. Data on Social Security and Medicare spending from the Congressional Budget Office is used to show the historical trends and projected share of the budget between 1970 and 2084. In 1970, spending on Social Security and Medicare was one-fifth of the budget. This portion has since grown to nearly 37%of the budget in 2010; this amounts to 8.4% of the country's gross domestic product.
The growing number of beneficiaries due to the aging of the baby-boom generation will cause scheduled spending to surge. If current Social Security and Medicare policies continue without change, large deficits will undoubtedly emerge in the next decade and will grow even larger in subsequent decades. Undoubtedly, these trends are unsustainable, and current law cannot be allowed to stand if these entitlement programs are to remain solvent without bankrupting the federal government (http://bit.ly/y5BFQX).