I'm a big fan of whiteboards. The White House has an online whiteboard series and I'm probably one of at least six people nationwide who actually watches and enjoys them.
So when Mitt Romney broke out a whiteboard to talk about Medicare today, I was actually quite pleased. I'm sure he'll get teased for this, but not by me -- at least not for the concept. The substance, however, is another matter.
For those who can't watch clips online, Romney drew a little chart on his whiteboard, showing President Obama's Medicare plan vs. his own for current retirees, and then for future retirees. Romney then made his pitch: for current retirees, he argues, there will be "no change" under his plan, while under Obama's policy, there will be, among other things, $716 billion in cuts.
For future retirees, Romney added, under Obama's policy, the Medicare system will be "bankrupt," while under the Romney plan, the system will be "solvent."
Let's put it this way: if there's a whiteboard code of honor, Romney just shredded it. I'm delighted he thought to use the medium, but this summary is so ridiculously dishonest, Romney has tarnished the very idea of whiteboard lessons.
This really isn't complicated. Under Romney's plan, there's "no change" for current retirees? That's completely wrong -- Romney's plan, which includes destroying the Affordable Care Act and gutting Medicaid, would necessarily lead to higher prescription drug costs for seniors and more expensive preventive care.
Under Obama's plan, the "cuts" are to unnecessary spending -- it's why Republicans adopted the same cuts in the budget plan that Romney endorsed.
As for the system's financial health, the Obama Medicare savings that Romney is condemning (after supporting them) makes the Medicare system more secure, not less. Romney isn't just lying, his claims are the polar opposite of the facts.
On the other hand, now that Romney is forcefully committed to spending more on Medicare, he's inadvertently endorsed a policy that hastens Medicare's fiscal demise. "Instead of running out of money in 2024, Medicare says its trust fund for inpatient care would go broke in 2016 without the cuts," the AP explained today. "That could leave a President Romney little political breathing room to finalize his own Medicare plan."
Everything Romney said today with his whiteboard was wrong, predicated on the notion that Americans are fools who won't know the difference.
Postscript:Yes, some clever folks already put together Romney's Whiteboard on Tumblr.
Update: The Obama campaign put together a corrected version of the same whiteboard.
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Whiteboards are like computers: Garbage In, Garbage Out. Romney, on the other hand, is just plain garbage, full stop.
I bet this is how he suckered all those bankrupt retirees into voting to give them their retirement savings AND convinced Social Security to not sue him after forcing the bankrupt retirees onto public support they did not pay for.
These retirement funds are guaranteed by the federal government through the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC), which allows Romney to move money from Social Security into his pocket.
The lead investigator for the Social Security fraud is Ms. Schneider who won't prosecute Bain because she is a former employee and stock holder.
The language of the guy at the whiteboard with the sleeves rolled up is that person actually knows what he is talking about. It doesn't have to be sensible what he is saying- it just has to be framed in such a way that the audience is told- ok- now just open your minds to me and I will rearrange everything so you can see it clearly. Anyway, what is weird about the visual is the classroom/ boardroom pitch visual is so anachronistic.... Like that Battleship visual- which was pretty bad because they didn't get the media platform in the right position to shoot the erect big guns...
Really, this is RomneyWorld Sitcoms take 69:
Oh god. Now it's not "My Favorite Martian". (photo of an alien with paul ryan lookalike)
He's trying to channel the professor on Gilligan's island. "Trust me, I know what these funny numbers mean."
crack:
Most of what you have written about the PBGC is simply incorrect.
And everything you have to say is incorrect.
@bannedagain,
The links I included prove I'm right.
You're just attacking me to try to stop people from reading the truth.
PBGC investigates the pension aspect of corporate bankruptcy as part of the process to migrate former employees onto Social Security. The lead investigator is a former Bain employee who received stock during her employment with the company she is supposed to be investigating for fraud.
The links that I included in my show all of that is true.
Did you click anywhere in my post?
Romney is sinking and it is time for the rats to abandon ship.
The only tactic left is to lie, and the best way to do that is with a white board and allot of hand waving.
Wow.
Mitt Romney is an Amway salesman?
I did not know that.
Ok, so the new Obama ad campaign should highlight "Romney's committed to spending $716 billion on Medicare (restoring the Obama cuts) without telling anyone where's he's getting the funding". At the same time he's gutting Ryan's medicare plan by removing $716 billion in medicare savings. What impact, Mr. Romney, will that have on the new Romney/Ryan medicare plan?
Yeah because White Boards have always made. Lies more believable. Mitt just because you write a lie on a White Board. It still makes it a lie. And only Fox and your base. Is dumb enough to actually believe it's the truth. Because you wrote it on a White Board, with erasable ink!
Plus you have to love the irony in him using a White Board. "See here's my plan. You can plainly see it! Oh wait. Never mind it's gone now!"
He should have used an Etch-a-Sketch instead. It's the traditional art medium of his people, the douchebagians.
I notice he did'nt use a "blackboard", tell you anything?Get on it Democrat's!Since they went after Biden for some phony race baiting, do the same thing.
Calvin? As a part-time member of the grammar police, PLEASE use proper punctuation when typing. I agree with a lot of your sentiments, but your constant use of periods in the wrong place is driving me nuts. Your persuasive arguments are damaged by the grammatical errors.
That is NOT a sentence!
White boards are just like Etch-A-Sketches, you just wipe them clean and you never said that.
How nice, our favorie Moron, er, I mean Mormon, is now at the point where everything he says is the opposite of reality. Be sure to get two independent sources to verify the fact when he says it's Thursday.
Well, it does make sense that R&R would want to give the $700b back to the insurance companies (et al). In their plan it's NOT going to "the people." (we the people are just not on their radar)
"Corporations are people too my friend" So of course they would give it back to the insurance companies, in Romney's mind they are people. So we know where all tax breaks and subsidies will go to the "Corporate People".
Americans voted for George W. Bush TWICE, so I think Americans are fools.
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You can use the reload button if you don't want to make a comment.
Thanks CH. Actually it had already posted. I hit the re-edit button to nuke it.
As Americans, we voted George W. Bush into office TWICE, so I think we are fools who don't know the difference.
"There's an old saying in Tennessee---I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee---that says, fool me once, shame on--- shame on you. Fool me--- you can't get fooled again."
Watchoo mean we, Kimosabe? SCROTUS did it once, and election fraud in Ohio did it the next time.
For the record, I had nothing to do with it!
;-)
Too, regardless of the Florida recount tally, Gore won the popular vote in 2000 by 550,000 or 0.5%. So that's 50,456,000 fools.
I have mixed feelings after watching this.I don't know if i should laugh or weep for my country.
It reminds of some periods in my life,when my mother and i would work on the blackboard.And she always has this catch,to pin me down,it was a way for her to actually know if i understood what i was doing.
she said;"I am not interested in your answers boy,show me your working,How did you get that?" " i want to know what your reasoning was."
I think,Mr.Romney has to show us how he came to that conclusion.
The problem is he can't show us how he came to his conclusion. Because I think showing people on National TV. That you just pulled something out of your @ss. Violates more than a few FCC regulations.
You know what?
This is not unlike the shoddy thinking in board room pitches at badly run businesses. I have had the misfortune to sit through scores of these. I have little doubt Romney is simply doing a simplified version of what he would do for Bain investors. Your competitor's are morons, the audience is encouraged to join in a feel good group think to simply to trust the veracity of the facts presented.
It's reality bending. It is how you get investors to trust you with their hard earned money. You are a pitchman.
Real job creators don't give a crap about the visuals. At the white board, they skip the weasel words, they skip the simplistic nutshell versions. They erase their hands and wipe the marker color all over their light colored pants.
When a straight shooter is leveling with you, they don't ask you to check your brain at the door. They don't encourage you to think in manichean terms about your competitor. You perform an honest assessment of what they are doing and what you are doing.
That's how real wealth is created. Not using numbers and facts as a smoke screen for the saps. Using numbers and facts to show them how you came to your conclusions, and why your strategy has excellent prospects in engaging those realities.
Is he going to pay the 716 billion with the 800 billion they take from medicaid. No matter how he robs peter to pay Paul the numbers don't add up and in the end Americans get screwed. The Ryan?Romney plan will protect the rich at all cost of 95% of Americans
What Obama Did to Medicare; What the $716 Billion in savings do:
For Seniors: -- Preventive Care without any additional co-pays, -- Prescription Drugs at reduced prices, -- Medicare remains strong with high enrollment
For Next Gen: -- Guarantees you the benefit of Medicare, -- Solvency of Medicare extended 8 years because $716 Billion remains in Medicare trust fund and not given to private insurance companies.
____________
What Romney-Ryan Do to Medicare; What giving $716 Billion back to insurance companies does:
For Seniors: -- Preventive Care coverage goes away immediately, -- Prescription Drug discounts go away, opens donut-hole; RX prices go up, -- Privatization means less enrollment, higher premiums for Medicare recipients.
For Next Gen: -- Medicare Gone; coupon given to buy private insurance, -- Additional out of pocket cost to cover is $6,400 on average, -- Also rate of inflation means coupons loose value over time, -- Bankrupt sooner because they steal $716 B to give to private insurers, -- Runs out of money in 2016 before the end of his 1st term.
_________________________
The Choice Is Clear. Now we just have to get Medicare For All.
How last century! He didn't even use colors. Now how can You People understand it if he doesn't use colors? Bet he's good at pictionary though.
...
Notice on his side of the board you have "No change" then "Solvent". Da hell goes in between that? What in his plan makes no change in medicare lead to solvency? That is left up to our imaginations. Also unicorns make better horses; better to poke people with.
Earlier in the day, Romney said his Medicare plan is the same as Ryan's. Here,
he says his plan keeps Medicare as it is. A voucher program is the same Medicare we
have now? There are so many things about Romney I don't like, but what bothers me
the most is that he is such a liar.
Mitt's aim was not to enlighten, but to obfuscate. He has no current plan, he would do whatever the next Republican congress and the Tea Party tell him to. His only goal now is to try to neutralize this as a political issue by whatever deceptions are necessary.
Blah, blah, blah...another wheelbarrow full of BullshMitt from the liars who bring us the BullshMitt Romney/Lyin' Paul Ryan campaign overflowing with...you guessed it, BullshMitt. He should've just drawn a unicorn on his his side of the whiteboard!
Consider this FACTUAL excerpt from PolitiFact.org. The entire read, for those who wish to base their arguments on FACTS, not bullshMitt and lies, is available at the link below:
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2012/aug/15/checking-facts-700-billion-medicare-cut/
Ryan/Romney [sic] don't like that their fatcat-buddy-execs and shareholder cohorts who run the corrupt healtcare conglomerates will get $716 Billion less than they currently do. Plus, if they really believed in mandating coverage for people w/ pre-existing conditions, no discrimination among costs for men and women, no lifetime caps on coverage, and covering people under 26 on their parents insurance, they would say that they agree with those provisions in the Obamacare...but, they don't. And that would mean admitting that Obama did something bi-partisan--but, that runs contrary to their blind hatred for PBO.
As an Independent voter, GOP has lost any chance of my voting for them in November and I am only one of many Inds. who seek out facts, whatever they reveal. Not to mention that the GOP has revealed that they are running as fanatical extremist, theological dixiecrats who have hateful, divisive, sinister plans for this great country from abortion to Jim Crow, Jr.-style voter i.d. laws, and for winning the election at any and all costs, truth and facts be damned.
WOW, now I get it… now that you write it out!
I can see that the FAKE "stolen" $716 bln is magically put back in (but that wasn't taken OUT from Medicare patients, but payments) and the vouchers are exactly the same as it was and solvency of Medicare if we take away from those under 55 now (taking from patients). GOT IT. Hocus Pokus Alakazam!
That spiel was already REJECTED, even if your spell it out and get your mother to say "Oh, he'd never do that".
We have Medicare plan that closes donut hole and regulated insurance to stop gouging us, you know… padding the bill and insurance fraud laws and ACA limits premiums. http://www.cahealthadvocates.org/_pdf/facts/A-007-CHAFactSheet.pdf Not to mention covering children up to 26 and no preventing preexisting conditions from being insured.
So, the ACA would be repealed, then we pay more for the same health care?
Seeing Romney's oh-so-awkward attempt at explaining an issue as important as Medicare makes me want to borrow something from Rachel. Mitt Romney is not very good at his job of running for president. In fact, he's remarkably awful, terrible, & pathetic.
Very entertaining spin with no substance. I cannot believe how ignorant these comments are about medicare and Obamacare. I look forward to 8 years of Romney/Ryan, A Republican Congress, and a less than significant liberal voice. (other than pure entertainment value)
Wake up umpa, Romneyhood and Paulocchio will never win!! American people know they're
liars. Do or say anything to get elected.
I'm ignoring him, he's trolling and trying to start a flame fest.
Really umpa, you must be one of the 2 percent. No wonder you want the cornball bunch!! Obama 2012
I knew there was misdirection, I know politicians don't always (hell rarely) tell us the whole truth, but today has been a shocker of epic proportions. I don't care what side of the aisle you are on. Today, a man stood in front of us and simply lied to us AFTER it had been proven a lie by countless organizations.
See I guess I was still that last little bit naive that the press was there to "keep em honest" at least to a degree - AS YOU HAVE DONE THANK YOU - and that when proved an untenable position the politician would move on to a new topic or spin on things.
Romney doesn't do that. No, he just stands there, whips out a white board like the prop lends him credence and baldy repeats the very same lie again! I don't know why, but I am utterly shocked!
Not only this but for every story that says "hey, this is what he said today" with no mention in the slightest way that it is all crap.
How did we get here?
I would love to get the point across that Romney is a 20th Century, born rich, MBA Worshiping CEO. THAT is what is going on here. When you look at just one sector of the economy - retail - you see that there has been a dramatic shift since 1960. There was a new business model growing fast. It no longer was interested on building clients, it was interested in profits exclusively. So we got everything to do with expenses - decor, wages - anything that took profits. Home Depot, Walmart, then worked hard to crush competition - selling at a loss for a while till everyone else was gone. After that they believed they could then do whatever they wanted because they were the only game in town. Customer Service? forget it. The true customer was now the Board, the Officers, the Stockholders and the Stock Brokers. The people who shop were of little concern.
I worked for two huge corporations like this, one retail and one financial. They were the same in attitude. The various CEOs simply lied a lot when dealing with the workers (we were semi-necessary drains on profits) and in both cases the CEO has NO experience in the retail sector (computers) or the Financial Construct of the Newspaper chain which had been purchased by a Financial Firm. The Newspaper was considered to be messy and dirty and the Financial people didn't like INK or PAPER or people who were not in suits. And the Computer Sales Chain didn't like anything about having riff-raff disturb the sales floor by looking at things.
Romney is trying to take over a corporation (in his mind) and the pesky voters are like workers - they really have no interest for Romney. Trust him. He is like the CEOs who came into our Daily Newspaper Office on a Thursday at 2:00 PM to explain that we were NOT being sold, we were doing fine, and that this CEO really understands Daily Newspapers. 'Cept Thursday was the busiest day for plating and printing EVERY WEEK (Sunday Sections and Weekly papers get plated and printed on Thursday and the Plate Deadline is 3:00 PM) - Yeah he lied - we got sold and we had layoffs within the month. Romney World View. Trus him.