This morning, in the wake of what I gather was a very solid convention speech by vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan (full disclosure: I missed it, due to an early night in advance of hubby sitting a professional exam at stupid o'clock this morning), liberals (and some non-liberals, including my friend Dave Weigel) are highlighting Ryan "hypocrisy" or "fibbing" (or "misleading," or whatever you want to call it) in his remarks.
I'll watch the full speech later, but based on the excerpts I've read, I have to say that I tend to agree with most of Avik Roy's conclusions on the matter, most of which weigh in Ryan's favor and against his critics. [intro]
On the charge that Ryan attacked Obamacare's Medicare cuts despite the fact that the Ryan plan would preserve those cuts (hypocrite!), Roy notes that:
Ryan’s budgets in 2011 and 2012 preserved Obamacare’s cuts to Medicare. However, there is a huge difference between cutting Medicare by $716 billion to fund $1.9 trillion in new health spending, as Obamacare did, and cutting Medicare by $716 billion to shore up the solvency of the Medicare program itself, as the Ryan budget sought to do.
Secondly, the Romney Medicare plan fully repeals Obamacare, including the $716 billion in Medicare cuts.
Correct. I'm for repealing Obamacare, but like Ryan, I too support the $716 billion Medicare cuts (which Obama supporters insist on calling "savings," a term that doesn't sound as mean and nasty as "cuts"). I would actually go further, but that's neither here nor there....
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