Tag: House Oversight Committee

Incoming Republican House Oversight Chair Signals $40 Bil in Medicare ‘Cuts’

Jon Ponder

Is it fair to cast eliminating waste and fraud to save billions in taxpayer funds as “cuts” to Medicare?

“Despite the ‘doom and gloom’ predictions you may have heard, the proposed savings in Medicare are designed to come from two sources; (a) a crackdown on Medicare fraud, estimated to currently cost the federal government as much as $60 billion per year and (b) a reduction in what is paid to the Medicare Advantage programs offered by private insurance companies.”
– Forbes.com

Obviously, it is not. But that’s exactly how Republicans have been spinning provisions in the Affordable Health Care Act — which they call Obamacare — that enable rooting out inefficiencies and corruption in the Medicare system. They also used this vile disinformation as campaign spin in order to scare millions of seniors into voting for them in the midterms.

But that was four weeks ago. Now the New York Times has spoken with Rep. Darrell Issa, the wealthy former car thief from California who is set to become the House’s chief Obama administration inquisitor — officially known as the chairman of the Oversight Committee — about his plans for next year. And guess what? He says he plans to ferret out “$40 billion a year in fraud or waste in Medicare” over the next two years.

But hold on here. After voting in lockstep against Democrats’ plan to eliminate waste and fraud and then campaigning against the efficiencies as “cuts” to Medicare, now Republicans are simply adopting the Democrats’ idea and moving on?

You betcha.

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