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Feb. 8, 2013

Rabbi Berel Wein: Lofty ideals must be followed with grounded applications

Clifford D. May: Letter from the West Bank
Steve Rothaus: Judge OKs plan for gay man, lesbian couple to be on girl's birth certificate
Gloria Goodale: States consider drone bans: Overreaction or crucial for privacy rights?
Environmental Nutrition Editors: Don't buy the aloe vera juice hype
Michael Craig Miller, M.D.: Harvard Experts: Regular exercise pumps up memory, too
Erik Lacitis: Vanity plates: Some take too much license
The Kosher Gourmet by Susie Middleton: Broccoflower, Carrot and Leek Ragout with Thyme, Orange and Tapenade is a delightful and satisfying melange of veggies, herbs and aromatics
Feb. 6, 2013

Nara Schoenberg: The other in-law problem

Frank J. Gaffney Jr. : A see-no-jihadist for the CIA
Kristen Chick: Ahmadinejad visits Cairo: How sect tempers Islamist ties between Egypt, Iran
Roger Simon: Ed Koch's lucky corner
Heron Marquez Estrada: Robot-building sports on a roll
Patrick G. Dean, M.D.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: How to restore body's ability to secrete insulin
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: 3 prostate-protecting diet tips
The Kosher Gourmet by Emma Christensen 7 principles for to help you make the best soup ever in a slow cooker
Feb. 4, 2013

Jonathan Tobin: Can Jewish Groups Speak Out on Hagel?

David Wren: Findings of government study, released 3 days before Newtown shooting, at odds with gun-control crusaders
Kristen Chick: Tahrir becomes terrifying, tainted
Curtis Tate and Greg Gordon: US keeps building new highways while letting old ones crumble
David G. Savage: Supreme Court to hear case on arrests, DNA
Harvard Health Letters: Neck and shoulder pain? Know what it means and what to do
Andrea N. Giancoli, M.P.H., R.D.: Eat your way to preventing age-related muscle loss
The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington Baked Pears in Red Wine and Port Wine Glaze: A festive winter dessert
Feb. 1, 2013

Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb: Redemption

Clifford D. May Home, bloody, home
Christa Case Bryant andNicholas Blanford Why despite Syria's allies warning of retaliation for Israeli airstrikes, the threats are likely hollow
Rick Armon, Ed Meyer and Phil Trexler Ex-police captain cleared by DNA test is freed after nearly 15 years
Harvard Health Letters: Could it by your thyroid?
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: When 'healthy food' isn't
Sue Zeidler: Coke ad racist? Arab-American groups want to yank Super Bowl ad (INCLUDES VIDEO)
The Kosher Gourmet by Nealey Dozier The secret of this soup is the garnish
January 30, 2013

Allan Chernoff: Celebrating 'Back from the Dead Day'

America isn't a religious country? Don't tell Superbowl fans!
Mark Clayton Cybercrime takedown!
Germany remembers Hitler rise to power
Israel salutes U. N. --- with the one finger salute
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: Get cookin' with heart-healthy fats
Ballot riles Guinness World Records
The Kosher Gourmet by Elizabeth Passarella Potato, Squash and Goat Cheese Gratin
January 28, 2013

Nancy Youssef: And Democracy for all? Two years on, Egypt remains in state of chaos

Fred Weir: Putin: West is fomenting jihadi 'blowback'
Meredith Cohn: Implantable pain disk may help those with cancer
Michael Craig Miller, M.D. : Ask the Harvard Experts: Are there drugs to help control binge eating?
David Ovalle Use of controversial 'brain mapping' technology stymied
Jane Stancill: Professor's logic class has 180,000 friends
David Clark Scott Lego Racism?
The Kosher Gourmet by Mario Batali The celebrated chef introduces us to PANZEROTTI PUGLIESI, cheese-stuffed pastry from Italy's south


Jewish World Review Aug 17, 2012 / 29 Menachem-Av, 5772

Dems ignore own issues with Medicare

By Deroy Murdock


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Presumptive GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan should begin his campaign rallies by blasting Eric Clapton's recording of "Before You Accuse Me (Take a Look at Yourself)." This blues tune perfectly reflects the neurosis of President Obama and his troops. They constantly bellow that Mitt Romney and Ryan lust to cut Medicare. Yet, in fact, it is Team Obama that already has chopped deeply into it.

Obama and his comrades echo each other on this point. Republicans are "weakening the safety net," Obama said Monday. "Romney and Paul Ryan are dead set on slashing seniors' Medicare benefits to pay for more millionaire tax breaks," Democratic strategist Kelly Ward wrote donors on Tuesday. "It's a rigged deal," Obama political guru David Axelrod told MSNBC on Thursday. "The Ryan budget, endorsed by Mitt Romney, would end Medicare," screamed MoveOn.org.

Unfortunately for Democrats, who have sung this song since last year, the truth refuses to harmonize with their vocals. Indeed, PolitiFact.com crowned the Left's "Republicans voted to end Medicare" mendacity as "the 2011 Lie of the Year."

The Washington Post caught Democrats with their hands, arms, and shoulders in the Medicare cookie jar.

"Romney is right," read last Tuesday's WashingtonPost.com headline. "Obamacare cuts Medicare by $716 billion." Post reporter Sarah Kliff's extensive evidence explains "all the various Medicare cuts Democrats made to pay for the Affordable Care Act" — also known as Obamacare.

For starters, Congressional Budget Office director Douglas W. Elmendorf wrote House Speaker John Boehner on July 24. Elmendorf determined that if Congress repealed Obamacare, "spending for Medicare would increase by an estimated $716 billion over that 2013-2022 period." Conversely, if Obamacare remains law, so will Obama's $716 billion in Medicare cuts.

The Washington Post conveniently itemizes Obama's ten-year decreases in Medicare:


  • The lion's share — some 34.8 percent, or $249.2 billion — involves "reductions in how much Medicare reimburses hospitals and private health insurance companies," as the Post's Kliff observes. Team Obama lamely argues that these are not Medicare-benefit cuts. Nice try. This is like saying that Washington is not reducing student aid, just limiting tuition payments to colleges and university systems.

  • Another 30.2 percent of Obama's Medicare reductions, or about $216.2 billion, is gouged out of Medicare Advantage. This highly popular program lets seniors choose among private insurers. But since Obama knows best, this market-friendlier approach gets catapulted off a cliff. "These cuts will force seniors to pay $3,700 more for their health care by 2017," according to the Ethics and Public Policy Center's James C. Capretta. "The Medicare trustees project that the cuts will drive some 4 million seniors out of Medicare Advantage plans between 2012 and 2018."

  • A further 8.8 percent ($63 billion) comes from slashed payments to home health providers.

  • An additional 5 percent in cuts ($35.8 billion) affects Disproportionate Share Payments. These subsidies assist hospitals that treat large numbers of uninsured patients.

  • The remaining 21.2 percent ($151.8 billion) consists of cuts to another ten or so Medicare services, the Washington Post reports.


It would have been bad enough if Obama had redistributed the funds from these cuts, but kept them within the Medicare system. Instead, he siphons much of this money from Medicare into Obamacare, a brand-new entitlement, many of whose beneficiaries are not even senior citizens.

Even worse, in what would constitute criminal fraud in the private sector, Obama simultaneously applies the same funds to Medicare and to Obamacare.

"So," Congressman John Shimkus (R., Ill.) asked Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at a House hearing on March 3, 2011, "are you using it [this money] to save Medicare, or are you using it to fund health-care reform? Which one?"

Secretary Sebelius confessed: "Both."

"So," Shimkus replied, "you're double-counting."

Liberals are hammering Romney, Ryan, and Republicans for something that they themselves already have done. This mental condition is known among psychologists as "projection." When it comes to gutting Medicare, Obama and the Left are projecting enough to fill an IMAX screen.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

Comment by clicking here.

Deroy Murdock is a columnist with Scripps Howard News Service and a media fellow with the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University.



Previously:

08/13/12: Speech Romney should give on Bain

07/20/12: Obama's green projects bleeding red

07/13/12: EPA, why fine oil firms over fantasy biofuel?

07/06/12: How about remembering Mexican victims of 'Fast and Furious'?

06/29/12: Health-care victory will give Obama headaches

06/22/12: Mitt Romney, get on bus

06/18/12: The 'racist' Florida vote purge obeys federal law

06/08/12: Scott Walker's win should propel big reforms, stiffen pols' spines

06/01/12: Regulators regulate, and that's a problem

05/25/12: WWII hero Karski to receive U.S. Medal of Freedom

05/18/12: Not the behavior of normal Americans

05/18/12: Spacemen to NASA: Cool it on global warming

05/04/12: Libs want to plunge the penthouse

04/27/12: Obama and company are pushing hard on the pedal for deadlier cars

04/20/12: We don't need no stinkin' budget?

04/14/12: New Reasons to Hate Obamacare

04/06/12: Team Obama plays energy policy for laughs

03/30/12: Twitchy Dems need to let workers put tax-cut money in retirement funds

03/23/12: Why not $100-an-hour minimum wage?

03/15/12: The real (high) cost of Obama's health care act

03/09/12: Race-baiting Dems oppose voter ID

03/02/12: Forget kids --- today's debt hurts adults

02/24/12: Dems arise against Obamacare

02/17/12: The voting dead are understated

02/10/12: Holder takes on 'racist' photo-ID cards: Prejudice is widespread --- even Obama backed them

02/03/12: On tax plans, Gingrich trumps Romney

01/27/12: Photo IDs can protect elections, let dead rest

01/20/12: Romney runs hot and cold on global warming

01/13/12: Economic freedom declines in U.S.

01/06/12: Time to yank off Mitt's mask

12/23/11: Boehner hands Dems a gift

12/15/11: The U.S. could learn much from Hong Kong

12/09/11:$687 billion is available to Congress free of strings

12/02/11: Obama criticizes Wall Street but takes money from it

11/18/11: Puerto Rico shows Washington the way

11/11/11: Take heed, America: In Ohio even left-wing unionists voted to repeal ObamaCare

10/28/11: Thanks, Netanyahu, for surge of hardened terrorists

10/24/11:The Obama Spend-O-Rama

10/17/11: Cain stakes his viable claim just by showing up

10/07/11: Green jobs are national scandal

10/04/11: Obama proudly declares class war

09/23/11: Obama wrong about ‘Do-Nothing’ Congress

09/16/11: Obama needs Ryan's vision on jobs

09/09/11: Reaganomics trounces Obamanomics

09/02/11: Labor leaders to Obama: Stop killing jobs

08/26/11: Pro-market Perry vaults over Romney in GOP race

08/19/11: Some rich Americans will not rest until Washington boosts their taxes

08/12/11: Hope, change and free birth control for all

08/05/11: Debt deal does virtually nothing

07/21/11: Dems pro-choice on abortion but little else

07/15/11: Debt deception: If only Dems were honest and GOPers were courageous

07/08/11: Congress' war on light bulb blows up





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