SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA): “That’s the senator from Arizona today. Only a year ago when he was running for president of the United States, this is what the senator proposed. Senator McCain: ‘John McCain would pay for his health plan with major reductions to Medicare and Medicaid, a top aide said, in a move that independent analysis estimate could result in cuts of $1.3 trillion in ten years to the government programs.’” (Sen. John Kerry, Floor Remarks, 12/5/09)FACTCHECK.ORG: “In a TV ad and in speeches, Obama is making bogus claims that McCain plans to cut $880 billion from Medicare spending and to reduce benefits.” (“Obama's False Medicare Claim,” FactCheck.org, 10/21/08)
· FACTCHECK.ORG: “These claims are false, and based on a single newspaper report that says no such thing.” (“Obama's False Medicare Claim,” FactCheck.org, 10/21/08)
· FACTCHECK.ORG: “It's a rank distortion.” (“Obama's False Medicare Claim,” FactCheck.org, 10/21/08)
Technorati tags:
democrats 
John Kerry 
McCain 
John McCain 
news 
obamacare 
health 
universal health care 
health care reform
You may want to view the full exchange on CSPAN, the fact is that Kerry was right. Kerry did NOT say that McCain would cut benefits. What Kerry quoted and said was that McCain claimed that he could cut more than $1 billion from Medicare, not that McCain said he would cut benefits. The fact is Kerry in 2004, Obama in 2008 and McCain in 2008 all identified eliminating waste and overpayment in Medicare in their healthcare plans.
ReplyDeleteKerry’s point was that recently McCain has claimed that the HCR bill, which cuts the same waste McCain wanted cut in 2008, will cut Medicare benefits.
Kerry, in a debate with McCain, distanced himself from the Obama ad and pointed out that he had not claimed that McCain was cutting benefits. Nor is the Senate bill cutting benefits - it is in fact, making some improvements such as partially closing the doughnut hole. Kerry is completely consistent here.
The Obama's ad was wrong in saying McCain would cut benefits. In addition, McCain recently was wrong in saying the Senate bill would cut Medicare benefits.
Here is a link to today’s Senate hearings. The Kerry/Burr exchange is slightly after 12:30, the Kerry/McCain exchange slightly before 14:00. http://www.c-spanvideo.org/congress/?q=node/77539&hors=s
Hear it with your own ears – Kerry at 14:00 read from factcheck.org.
It sounded to me as if McCain did not here Senator Kerry, as Kerry read the exact same paragraph.
The fact is McCain and the GOP has been trying to scare seniors. I assume seniors are well aware of which party initiated and protected Medicare through the years.