Dear Commons Community,

Last night Rachel Maddow called out Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney on the lie that is being perpetrated on President Obama’s Medicare proposals.    The Republican talking point is that the Obama health care reform will, in the words of Mitt Romney, “hurt today’s seniors.” Actually the opposite is the case that is, the Republican Plan will hurt seniors.

Paul Krugman (economist, Nobel Laureate, NY Times columnist) has analyzed the Republican proposal and concludes that it reduces Medicare to a voucher plan that will require senior citizens to fend for themselves to secure appropriate insurance providers.  While some older people will do okay with this, many others especially those with a history of or otherwise prone to illness will have difficulty getting insurance leaving them uninsured.

Fortune magazine asked the House majority leader, Eric Cantor, about the Republican Medicare proposal which was drafted by Paul Ryan during the convention.  Cantor’s response was: “The assumption was that, um, the, the, ah, again — I probably can’t speak to that in an exact way, so I better just not.”

Thank you for the insight!

Tony