Barack Obama, Medicare | featured news

House and Senate Republican leaders told President Barack Obama Thursday that they will refuse to nominate candidates to serve on an advisory board that is to play a role in holding down Medicare costs under the new health care act.

President Barack Obama's re-election has stiffened Democrats' spine against cutting popular benefit programs such as Medicare and Social Security. Their new resolve could become as big a hurdle to a deal that would skirt crippling tax increases and spending cuts in January as Republicans' resistance to raising tax rates on the wealthy.

New polling by Reuters/Ipsos indicates that during the past two weeks - since just after the Democratic National Convention - support for Romney among Americans age 60 and older has crumbled, from a 20-point lead over Democratic President Barack Obama to less than 4 points.

...So Massachusetts used not just federal Medicaid money but federal dollars above and beyond that Medicaid money to finance their health reforms. It is difficult to see how Romney’s proposal to cut Medicaid spending and hand that reduced share over to the states would allow other states to follow Massachusetts’ example. It might not even permit Massachusetts to continue following Massachusetts’ example.

Romney insists his plans would help the middle class; Obama criticizes his rival's lack of specifics. After a week in which Democrats repeatedly attacked his economic plan as beneficial to the rich and devastating to the poor, Republican nominee Mitt Romney insisted Sunday that his tax and budget proposals would help rebuild the middle class in America.

A new report says the U.S. health care system squanders $750 billion a year - roughly 30 cents of every medical dollar... But the counter-intuitive finding from the report is that deep cuts are possible without rationing, and a leaner system may even produce better quality.

These days, President Obama is running as much against Paul Ryan as Mitt Romney. Having used the Medicare issue against Romney and his running mate Ryan -- who is chairman of the House Budget Committee -- Obama today zeroed in on education funding. "Putting a college education within reach for working families just doesn't seem to be a big priority for my opponent," Obama told supporters today in Columbus, Ohio.

Republican attacks on President Obama’s plans for Medicare are growing more heated and inaccurate by the day. Both Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan made statements last week implying that the Affordable Care Act would eviscerate Medicare when in fact the law should shore up the program’s finances.

“So here is the bottom line: My plan saves money in Medicare by cracking down on fraud and waste and insurance company subsidies. And their plan makes seniors pay more so they can give another tax cut to millionaires and billionaires.”

Escalating the campaign fight over Medicare, Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan warned an audience of Florida seniors Saturday that changes to the program made by President Obama's healthcare plan will lead to rationing of care for the elderly.