…“Paul Ryan’s and my plan for Medicare, I think, is the same, if not identical—it’s probably close to identical.” You think? Can’t Romney ever talk straight? He’s not supposed to; as one of his strategists told Politico, it would be “politically unwise” to let voters see the “detail” of his proposal.

While dissembling about his own position, Romney counterfeited Obama’s, alleging in a hastily edited spot that the president “cut $716 billion from Medicare…[t]o pay for Obamacare.” Haste, and the taste of impending political doom lay waste to the truth. Obama didn’t cut one dollar from Medicare benefits, but payments to providers like hospitals with a poor record of patient care and insurance companies that have inflated the cost of Medicare Advantage, a Bush-born private supplement that suggests how inefficient and expensive for seniors Ryan’s vouchers would be. Moreover, the accurate figure for the savings is $500 billion; Politifact was moved to ask where Romney the vaunted numbers man found Obama cutting another “$200 billion while no one was looking.” Undeterred and determined to lie his way out of trouble with seniors, Romney doubled down. The president, he said, has “robbed” Medicare.

The other truth that has been trashed here is that the Ryan budget includes exactly the same savings that Obama signed into law. Ryan just uses the savings to lavish a tax bonanza on the top 1 percent. Obama uses them to prolong the solvency of the Medicare trust fund and to close the “doughnut hole” in prescription-drug coverage for Medicare recipients, which required them to pay 100 percent of their annual drug costs between $2,840 and $6,448. The difference here gives the lie to the Ryan-Romney ticket’s reassurance that their scheme would mean “no changes…for current seniors or those nearing retirement.”

First, by repealing Obamacare, the GOP duo would reopen the doughnut hole and cost millions of the elderly thousands of dollars.

Second, as Romney dug himself in on the $716 billion whopper, he tried to extract credibility from contrivance by promising to reverse the Obama “cuts.” He’s straining to leave the misimpression that this would benefit seniors when in truth it could leave Medicare insolvent by 2016, threatening a reduction in benefits sooner not later—and not for the next generation, but now. Yet there was the invincibly misleading candidate standing at a white board—what a perfectly corporate image—scrawling “Solvent” across it.

Third, the immediate Medicaid cuts that Ryan has proposed and Romney has endorsed would shred coverage for 6 million of the elderly, many of them in nursing homes, who account for 23 percent of the program’s cost.

As the Obama camp fired back on the airwaves with an indisputably accurate refutation of the notion that the president ever cut benefits, Ryan appeared in Florida alongside his mother acting out the National Republican Congressional Committee’s playbook, which advises: “Inoculate by pledging to secure and protect Medicare; use credible third-party validators (moms or seniors).” It was a cynical and duplicitous ploy to put a kindly face on a cruel and selfish policy. And of course, Ryan’s mother could afford to pay thousands more for prescription drugs—or an extra $6,000 for Medicare.

Expect a lot more on the Medicare front…

Now and then I may take one short poke with a fifteen-foot one.

Our system is ridiculously screwed up. You can’t take anything either side says at face value. No doubt each candidate has some agenda in mind but I seriously doubt that their typical personal agenda even vaguely resembles the wants, needs, and expectations of their various constituencies.

I was thinking the same thing Frank. As a female…I feel like a pawn.

All the time they spent talking about our Kenyan, Socialist, Muslim, pro-terrorist and weak-on- defense President didn’t seem to get them anywhere either. Now they’re whining about entitlements and taxes and the budget, important issues to be sure, but not as important as jobs and the economy.

When they lose, they’ll blame it all on the Liberal media hijacking the conversation.

2)So they promise the 55 and over extravagant boosts in Medicare benefits. (“Obama wants to take away your Medicare!”)

3)To save the system, witholding has to go up and benefits have to be reduced. Do the math.

4))But we know that benefits are payed for by the younger, 65 and under crowd’s, witholding taxes.

5) With increasing benefits, the witholding can’t keep up without crushing payroll taxes. The system will go broke that much sooner.

6)A situation is set up to deliberately provoke inter-generational warfare, pitting the under and over 55s against each other for diminishing resources. The under-55s will provide the future voters needed to destroy Medicare, and Social Security, to free up all that money for their privatizing, vocherizing Wall Street and health insurance company pals.

7) Divide and conquer, class warfare, cynicism on a high order.

It is a cause that they are forced to back because there is a sizable bloc of votes that this position commands. The Democrats do the same in regard to some of the other minority social issues. It is all about garnering votes within the traditional constituency. If the right to life votes were up for grabs and the Democrats needed those votes to win, you would see a sea change in their attitude on the issue

Our system is ridiculously screwed up. You can’t take anything either side says at face value. No doubt each candidate has some agenda in mind but I seriously doubt that their typical personal agenda even vaguely resembles the wants, needs, and expectations of their various constituencies.

We can probably be thankful for that, but sadly those personal agendas also seldom address the important issues

If Romney’s new position on Medicare isn’t proof this man will say anything and has no core then nothing is.

The chances of him putting back $700b into medicare if he is elected is zero. Not one dime of those cuts are from beneficiaries. The “cuts” limit growth of payments to hospitals, insurance companies and pharm companies. All of which agreed to the cuts since there will be more people in the insurance pool. The saving also closed the donut hole for seniors.

So now suddenly Mitt’s not going to cut government he’s going to increase it and pay for it how?

C’mon TB, do your flips and flops and find a way to support this preposterous bullshit.