“Fact Checking” Medicare
Monday, November 3rd, 2008Mark Twain once said, “Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please”. That philosophy is prominent in many political campaigns these days, giving rise to the “fact checker” as a regular feature of newspapers and network news shows during campaign seasons. But what do you do when even [...]
Slashing Medicare & Medicaid Not the Answer
Monday, October 6th, 2008A senior policy advisor with the McCain campaign says they’ll use major cuts in Medicare and Medicaid to pay for the McCain healthcare plan if he’s elected President. According to the Wall Street Journal, independent analysts estimate those cuts at $1.3 trillion over 10 years. “It is irresponsible and unrealistic to believe America’s poor and [...]
Ronald Reagan, Sarah Palin and Medicare
Monday, October 6th, 2008Conservatives love to quote Ronald Reagan, so Sarah Palin’s reference in Thursday’s debate barely caught our attention. That is until we found the quote is far from what it seems: “It was Ronald Reagan who said that freedom is always just one generation away from extinction. We don’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream; [...]
Let’s Get it Right on Social Security
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008Barbara B. Kennelly, President/CEO The Washington Post and FactCheck.org made several errors recently in their comments about Social Security privatization. Let’s start with the Post. Ruth Marcus says the 2005 Bush privatization proposal, which Senator McCain supported, would have reduced annual Social Security benefits for an average earner, retiring in 2045, by only about 16 [...]