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A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center

Fall Preview: Obama vs. Romney (and Ryan)

Fall Preview: Obama vs. Romney (and Ryan)

President Obama says Mitt Romney has embraced a budget that could throw hundreds of thousands of children out of Head Start classrooms, eliminate air traffic control services in some places, and “ultimately end Medicare as we know it.” Romney says that’s just “rhetorical excess” and …

Does House Budget Plan Cut Taxes or Not?

Does House Budget Plan Cut Taxes or Not?

Rep. Paul Ryan says the House Republican budget plan does not cut taxes. White House senior adviser David Plouffe says not only does it cut taxes, but it “showers huge additional tax cuts on the wealthy.” Who’s right? It depends on the details of the final plan, but a nonpartisan analysis shows Ryan’s plan likely would reduce taxes for high-income taxpayers.
The does-too/does-not virtual debate between Ryan and Plouffe played out March 25 across a few of the Sunday morning talk shows.

DCCC Dials Wrong Number

Democrats make false and misleading claims about the impact of the House GOP budget plan on Medicare and the federal debt in automated phone calls placed in 13 districts. The robocalls, paid for by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee …

DNC Chair Throws Truth to ‘Wolves’

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz falsely claimed that seniors with preexisting medical conditions would be denied Medicare coverage under the GOP's plan. The House GOP plan specifically says insurance companies “must agree to offer insurance to all Medicare beneficiaries.” 
She also repeated a false Democratic talking point that future beneficiaries — those who are now younger than 55 — would be left on their own to buy insurance in the private market. The GOP plan, as we have written before,

Ryan Revises History on Medicare Reform

Rep. Paul Ryan revises history when he says his Medicare plan is "in keeping with the Bill Clinton bipartisan committee" proposal in 1999. Contrary to the impression left by Ryan, the commission's final report failed largely along partisan lines. Clinton opposed it, and all four of his appointees voted against it. 
It's true, though, that both proposals recommended providing a government subsidy for seniors to buy insurance — that's one of the issues that caused the plan to fail to win final approval.

Ryan’s Budget Spin

Rep. Paul Ryan spreads some false and misleading information in a series of “Setting The Record Straight” web posts, in which he criticizes the president’s proposed budget and promotes …

Obama Misrepresents Ryan Plan

President Barack Obama has been hammering away at Rep. Paul Ryan’s Medicare proposal, misrepresenting what it would mean for seniors.
Since his deficit speech April 13, Obama has continued to claim that the Republican plan would throw Medicare beneficiaries to the open insurance market. But, as we said last week, the plan would create a new Medicare exchange, with rules for participating insurance companies.
Obama, April 20, Facebook town hall: And if the health insurance companies don’t sell [retirees] a policy that covers your illnesses,

Ryan’s Muddy Medicare Claims

Rep. Paul Ryan’s claim that Medicare will be "bankrupt in nine years" goes too far. The trust fund that primarily supports one part of Medicare is projected to be exhausted come 2020, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees said it might not actually happen until 2029. That still doesn’t mean the system will be "bankrupt," though.
The House Budget Committee chairman was making the case for his 2012 budget proposal,

FactChecking Obama’s Budget Speech

President Barack Obama misrepresented the House Republicans’ budget plan at times and exaggerated its impact on U.S. residents during an April 13 speech on deficit reduction. Obama claimed …

Biggest Budget Cut in U.S. History?

Democrats and Republicans alike are making grandiose — and unsupportable — claims that the budget deal contains the biggest spending cut in U.S. history.
Under the bipartisan agreement, the proposed budget for this fiscal year would be $38.5 billion less than last year’s budget. The federal government spent nearly $3.5 trillion in 2010, so the cut is a little more than 1 percent of total spending.

President Barack Obama called it "the biggest annual spending cut in history."