Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who knows how to bully elderly voters into voting for her, (she is from Florida) is using a time-honored Democratic Party approach to woo elderly voters: scare the hell out of them. Speaking in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, she warned that Mitt Romney will force seniors out of nursing homes and “out into the cold” if he’s elected president.
Romney “and his Tea Party extremist allies” are planning to rip Medicare benefits away from the elderly, she alleged, by his endorsement of Paul Ryan’s budget plan, which she said would “end Medicare as we know it.” She claimed Ryan’s voucher system would cost the average senior an extra $6,300 in annual Medicare premiums.
Turning to a more general attack on Romney, Wasserman Schultz said, “It’s unbelievable and astonishing how out of touch Mitt Romney is and how he really doesn’t understand the needs of regular working families who aren’t already doing really well.”
Here’s the 400-pound gorilla in the room (No, I’m not speaking of Wasserman Schultz; she must weigh less than that): Ms. Schultz, why do you think regular working families aren’t doing very well?
Romney isn’t president right now. Who is responsible then? Hmmmm…
As for Wasserman Schultz’s claim that Ryan’s budget plan will hurt the elderly, Wasserman Schultz should know better. Obamacare will cut Medicare Advantage payment rates by an average of $3,700 for each person in 2017. This is 27 percent below what beneficiaries would have received without ObamaCare. This will translate directly into higher health-care costs for seniors. Seniors losing $3,700 per year in Medicare at 65 until their deaths at age 77 or 78 would lose about $44,000 in benefits. In the ten years following the adoption of ObamaCare, Medicare spending will increase $25 billion.
Of course, when Wasserman Schultz’s press secretary was asked how Obama intends to reform the Medicare, no answer. RNC Spokesman Tommy Schultz offered the Republican response:
President Obama and his friends in the Democratic party think the solution for seniors is placing a panel of 15 unelected and unaccountable Washington bureaucrats in between them and their doctors. Instead of keeping his promise to protect and preserve Medicare, President Obama decided to cut over $500 billion from Medicare to help pay for his government takeover of healthcare.
Wasserman Schultz should be lambasted for scaring the elderly, but in the Democratic Party, that’s how you earn your stripes.
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