With the hurricane of attacks that have come Vice Presidential Nominee Paul Ryan's way, we thought we'd take a minute to set the record straight on who actually cut Medicare. Hint: It's not Paul Ryan.

The truth is that President Obama is the only candidate running for president (or vice president, for that matter) who has cut Medicare for seniors.  According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, President Obama cut $716 billion from Medicare to help fund his boondoggle, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.

Unfortunately, the Obama campaign has been trying to distract seniors from the cuts that have already happened by threatening cuts to come.  But, here's the skinny:

  • Associated Press reports that the Department of Health and Human Services projected that cuts to Medicare Advantage would cause approximately 50% of its enrollees to leave the program, resulting in higher out-of-pocket costs for those enrollees.
  • While Obama has insisted that "benefits would remain the same", FactCheck.org disputed that claim saying "the promise…is just as fictional as the town of Mayberry when Griffith played that local sheriff."
  • The Center for Medicare and Medicaid has estimated that health care facilities – 15% of facilities by 2019, 25% of facilities by 2030, and 40% of facilities by 2050 – would experience negative margins and "would have to withdraw from providing services to Medicare beneficiaries, merge with other provider groups, or shift substantial portions of Medicare costs to their non-Medicare, non-Medicaid payers."
  • 52% of doctors say Obamacare will compel them to close or significantly restrict their practices to Medicare patients, according to The Physicians Foundation.

It's bad enough that Obamacare will send our healthcare system into a tailspin, but then, the Obama campaign had the audacity to tell Americans that these cuts were a good thing, with Obama Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter saying that Obama had "achieved" over $700 billion in cuts in Medicaid.

In a "Face the Nation" interview just last week, this is what Cutter said about Medicare cuts:

"…You ask the wealthy to pay a little bit more.  Cut waste from the government.  Reform Medicare.  More than $300 billion in savings from Medicare, on top of savings we've already achieved.  …I heard Mitt Romney deride the $700 billion cuts in Medicare tha the president achieved through health care reform."

If reduced access to care and higher out-of-pocket costs for seniors on a fixed income is an achievement, the public ought to take a look at President Obama's other "achievements" with a very skeptical eye.