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Fallacies and Charades
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The Public Policy
Final Proof of Democrat Decline
Forget the boorishness. Just read the final transcript of Biden-Ryan transcript.
Yes, take Barack Obama’s advice and read the transcript of the Vice Presidential debate last week, as I did. In the black and white pages, without Biden and Raddatz trying to shout Ryan down, Ryan’s well-informed points and arguments shine through even better, while Biden’s disgraceful serial dishonesty is more clearly exposed, without the surrounding brown shirt bluff and bluster.
Biden seemed to be following a strategy of “catch me if you can,” unconstrained by truth and reality. The strategy is say whatever you have to so that you seem to win the point of contention at the moment, regardless of how divorced from reality those statements may be. Then let your opponents go nuts trying to communicate your errors to the public, through the fog of the Democrat Party controlled, so-called mainstream media, knowing they will never be on any nearly such big stage again. That can only be considered dishonorably dishonest and disrespectful abuse of the average voter and viewer.
Medicare Meltdown
The point was probably best illustrated in the debate over
Medicare. Ryan discussed Obamacare’s Independent Payment Advisory
Board, saying:
And they put this new Obamacare board in charge of cutting Medicare each and every year in ways that will lead to denied care for current seniors. The board, by the way, it’s 15 people, the President’s supposed to appoint them next year. And not one of them even has to have medical training.
Biden said in response:
You know, I heard that death panel argument from Sarah Palin. It seems every Vice Presidential debate I hear this kind of stuff about death panels.
Ryan never used the term death panels or referred to Sarah Palin. Biden here was trying to appeal to the prejudice of his party’s base, rather than responding to Ryan’s point with logic. To the average viewer, it would seem that Biden is actually denying what Ryan said was true. But Ryan was 100% accurate. As established in the Obamacare law, the Independent Payment Advisory Board, composed of 15 appointed, unelected, unaccountable Washington bureaucrats, has the power to impose further Medicare cuts each year, beyond the $716 billion adopted directly in the Obamacare legislation, to the payments to doctors and hospitals providing health care to seniors on Medicare. Moreover, those cuts automatically go into effect without approval from Congress. And if those payments are not sufficient to cover the costs of such health care, then seniors are not going to get the health care. The Chief Actuary of Medicare has said as much, but it just stands to reason.
Biden added:
But let’s talk about Medicare. What we did is, we saved $716 billion and put it back, applied it to Medicare. We cut the cost of Medicare. We stopped overpaying insurance companies, doctors and hospitals. The AMA supported what we did. AARP endorsed what we did. And it extends the life of Medicare to 2024. They want to wipe all of this out.
Obama and Biden are figuring that voters will not remember that when Obama was trying to get Obamacare passed, he barnstormed the country promising voters that it will not increase the deficit, relying on a CBO score to that effect. But that score was based on the $716 billion going into Obamacare. Otherwise, Obamacare would have a deficit of $716 billion. But if the $716 billion is used to finance Obamacare and make it deficit neutral, obviously it can’t also, as Biden claimed, be put back and applied to Medicare, to pay Medicare benefits. Can you use the same $716 to pay your rent, and also to make your car payment and pay the utility bills? That is the logic of Obamanomics, which Biden tried to pawn off to voters in the debate. Both CBO and the Medicare Chief Actuary have called out the Obama Administration for this illogic.
Indeed, Medicare’s Chief Actuary Rick Foster has warned that with that $716 billion in Medicare cuts, by the end of this decade Medicare will be paying less to doctors and hospitals for health care for seniors than Medicaid pays for health care for the poor. But the poor cannot reliably get timely and effective care with what Medicaid pays, and suffer worse health outcomes as a result, including early death. That is the future now for seniors on Medicare, raided to pay for Obamacare. That is not just stopping overpayments to doctors and hospitals under Medicare, as Biden tried to claim
The AMA did not support these cuts. Obama bought their silence with the promise to reverse the cuts after Obamacare was passed, and he has successfully fooled the voters. The AARP has always been a Democrat party political activist front group, and was further bought off with favoritism in the legislation for the products it sells to seniors, worth billions a year.
Ryan accurately explained,
Here’s the problem. They got caught with their hands in the cookie jar, turning Medicare into a piggy bank for Obamacare. Their own actuary from the Administration came to Congress and said one out of six hospitals and nursing homes are going to go out of business as a result of this.
Biden interrupted: “That’s not what they said.” But that is what they said. Forbes columnist Avik Roy in his October 12 column quoted directly from the Congressional Testimony of Medicare Chief Actuary Rick Foster: “roughly 15 percent of Part A providers would become unprofitable within the 10-year projection period.”
About the Author
Peter Ferrara is Director of Entitlement and Budget Policy at the Heartland Institute, General Counsel of the American Civil Rights Union, Senior Fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis, and Senior Policy Advisor on Entitlements and Budget Policy at the National Tax Limitation Foundation. He served in the White House Office of Policy Development under President Reagan, and as Associate Deputy Attorney General of the United States under President George H.W. Bush.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (23) | Leave a comment
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Appleby| 10.17.12 @ 7:26AM
All of us watching this debacle were glad our Daddy was safe in Heven, because the falsehoods in that debate would have made his head explode.
Alan Obama Fan Brooks | 10.17.12 @ 4:45PM
Ryan is the best of the four candidates-- so then the Grand Old Prevaricators ought to run him for POTUS in 2016.
Von Mises Jr| 10.17.12 @ 7:29AM
Not only will the cuts to Medicare reimbursement to doctors reduce treatment options to seniors, but the expansion of Medicaid to 138% of the poverty line will either cost the states dramatic property tax increases, or the low income people who were touted to benefit will still not have medical insurance.
In New Jersey, doctors often do not take Medicaid since the reimbursements less cost yields about 13%. For a $100 visit, the doctor earns $13. But they are then liable to malpractice suits that average one per career costing an average of $25K settlement. So at $100 per visit, the doctors must perform 1923 free visits to cover the medical suits.
If New Jersey expands Medicaid coverage, the cost per year is $5B. With a $33B Budget, that is a fifteen percent (15%) increase. So property taxes will need to be raised approximately 20% on the average of about $10K to $12K, or about $2K to $2,500 per homeowner (seniors have property tax freeze). So all homeowners and renters will see a 20% increase or the people alleged to get coverage under ObamaCare will only be potentially subject to a fine. It starts at $695 and quickly escalates to as much as 2.5% of your income in 2016.
Surprise, Surprise. This is why Biden had to lie, if he even understands the economic metrics.
TLP| 10.17.12 @ 2:05PM
"Medicare will be paying Less to Doctors and Hospitals for the Treatment of the Elderly, than Medicaire will be paying for The Poor."
There's your Death Panels.
Grzmlyk| 10.17.12 @ 2:11PM
There you go throwing numbers around. Silly, silly right-wing fascist. Why the hate speech? Y'all are jes' a bigot-homophobe-sexist-millionaire-billionaire who won't pay his fair share. You a greedy sombitch, not forking over your income so that I can have what I want.
Next thing you're gonna tell us is that you are an entrepreneur and you create jobs! Bastard! Only government should create jobs. All money is, after all, the government's (except mine, of course).
What's important about the Obama administration, and Democrat policies in general, is that there's free candy for everybody, paid for by the evil rich!!!!
Woo hoo! Barack goin' get' me ma Obamaphone next.
I loves me this free shit.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why America is going to collapse. We have forsaken reality.
Incidentally, what I saw from Romney last night was not a true conservative, but Statist-lite. Guaranteed, he's going to retain the parts of Obamacare that prove popular - and, whether von Mises Jr.'s numbers are 100% accurate or not, the gist is utterly correct - the whole POINT of Obamunism is to delete the middle class and make everybody an abject dependent on government.
Will Romney have the cajones, or the political capital, to reverse this trend?
No.
Von Mises Jr| 10.17.12 @ 3:15PM
Just take a extended vacation in Cuba or North Korea and we will take care of business here.
Grzmlyk| 10.17.12 @ 4:57PM
?? You realize the first part of that was tongue-in-cheek, don't you? Did you even read the whole post?
It's me, Grzmlyk! Helloooo!
As a nominal Austrian, I'd have thought you'd agree that Romney is a statist. He is, you know.
Has someone hijacked your moniker?
Von Mises Jr| 10.17.12 @ 8:08PM
My apologies my friend. I was confused with the post and simply do not want to hear negativity with three weeks to go.
Obama is self-destructing since events cannot be managed and everything in his world of bull$hit is $hitting the bed.
You are very reasoned and lucid when we have chatted before or I read your posts. So please excuse me if I have a hair trigger. Our children's future is at stake as well as our freedoms.
God Blesses you my friend.
c. j. acworth| 10.17.12 @ 8:13AM
Sure Biden lied through his teeth, but I'm sure the watchdog fact-checkers of the media will call him out and set the record straight Real Soon Now.
spike59| 10.18.12 @ 5:40AM
spike59| 10.18.12 @ 5:41AM
that was the sound of the crickets
Louis Jenkins| 10.17.12 @ 8:54AM
The picture? Biden isn't grinning nor is he gawfawing. Is this a posed photo? Biden was an ass during the debate, and he did exactly what his handlers told him to do. Confuse, confound, obfiscate.
Joellen| 10.17.12 @ 9:52AM
I am asking all who can (doesnt matter what your faith is) to call Cardinal Dolan's office at 212-371-1000, and humbly ask him to rescind his invitation to the annual Al Smith dinner tomorrow night. Please just do it and ask all you know to do same. This is truly a mistake on the Cardinals decision and he must be made aware that he too is prone to "wrong judgement" and must have the courage to correct and thus make right judgement. Rescind the invitation Cardinal Dolan - 212-371-1000. Ask to speak to him directly!
Joellen| 10.17.12 @ 10:16AM
Excuse the vague details, that would be rescind the invitation to Obama, the most pro-death president EVER.
TLP| 10.17.12 @ 2:13PM
I'm sorry, Joellen, but I'm starting to think that Cardinal Dolan is a Fool.
Everytime he gets an opportunity to Overturn this Moneychanger's Table, he turns the other cheek.
Until the Catholic Hierarchy takes a Principled Stand against these Democrat Politicians, and their Attacks on CHRIST'S COMMANDS, this sh*t will continue.
Excommunicate these Bastards, and do it in CHRIST'S name.
They are an Abomination in the eyes of the LORD.
Period!
Joellen| 10.17.12 @ 4:05PM
Tim, agreed. That's why I am asking all to call him. He's wrong on this and as a disciple of CHRIST, he needs to humble himself, admit it and rescind the invition. So again I ask all to call.
fmm| 10.17.12 @ 11:53AM
In comment to your last paragraph, Jack Kennedy would be an extreme right member of todays dem party. Rush played an excerpt of Kennedy's speech on taxation from 1962 and it sounded like the Ryan plan of today.
Oldefarte| 10.17.12 @ 2:18PM
First, Biden [along with his boss Obama as well as all other Democrats] IS A LIAR! This whole debate revolves around governmental welfare paid for by taxpayers. The latter are being asked to pay more and more of their hard earned income to taxiation by government, so that the former can increasingly obtain mare and more governmental welfare. For every RIGHT that someone has, there is an equal and corresponding RESPONSIBILITY in life. The Democrats make a political living over limiting the discussion to RIGHTS, and to conveniently ignoring the subject of RESPONSIBILITY. Romney/Ryan/Republicans need to make the latter the prime subject of discussion, and what the governmental welfare recipients moral obligations are to the rest of society. Most of these indigents [not all] are blood-suckers that are destroying this nation in their demands for more and more governmental welfare!!!!!!!!!!
Truth to Power| 10.17.12 @ 3:16PM
The big O was practicing for January:
http://www.realclearpolitics.c.....ebate.html
Occam's Tool| 10.17.12 @ 7:03PM
As a physician, Obama has insulted my profession and me over and over. He is a loathsome, traitorous scumbag, and so is Biden.
John II| 10.17.12 @ 7:45PM
The Professor is not a physician, Occie--although he IS indeed a scumbag. Again, I must insist on perfect spelling and perfect grammar (your first sentence opens with a dangling modifier) to grace the truth of such utterances as yours.
Am I the only one who's noticed that these thickly referenced, tightly argued, number-crunching pieces by the likes of Ferrara never draw any troll-comment?
By the way, you're right about Moe Howard, Occie: a mensch. How could it be otherwise in a man born Moses Horvitz? Most people seem to live up to their given names. I wonder if "obama" means "dirtbag" in Swahili.
CLD| 10.20.12 @ 1:04AM
The part of Ferrara's piece that struck me the most:
"But the poor cannot reliably get timely and effective care with what Medicaid pays, and suffer worse health outcomes as a result, including early death."
A very strong indictment of our country, I'd say. (And so much for the compassion our pols like to yap about.)
WKH| 10.20.12 @ 11:43PM
The one point I wish Ryan had jumped on I unfortunately have not heard anybody mention. If you check Biden's final comments you will see that, once again, the first words out of his mouth were to blame the previous administration for all our problems. You can't help but wonder if Obama were to win would we be hearing the same argument in another 4 years?