McCain Plans To Trash Medicare And Medicaid

A big part of John McCain's health care plan involves a tax credit, but it comes at the expense of Medicare and Medicaid. Those two programs allow for millions of Americans to receive health care assistance but John wants to take that away, to the tune of $1.3 trillion over ten years. Of course, the Republican candidate doesn't like to talk about that much, especially with his plummeting poll numbers, but the Wall Street Journal fills us in anyways.

From The WSJ:

The Republican presidential nominee has said little about the proposed cuts, but they are needed to keep his health-care plan "budget neutral," as he has promised. The McCain campaign hasn't given a specific figure for the cuts, but didn't dispute the analysts' estimate.

In the months since Sen. McCain introduced his health plan, statements made by his campaign have implied that the new tax credits he is proposing to help Americans buy health insurance would be paid for with other tax increases.

But Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Sen. McCain's senior policy adviser, said Sunday that the campaign has always planned to fund the tax credits, in part, with savings from Medicare and Medicaid. Those government health-care programs serve seniors, poor families and the disabled. Medicare spending for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30 is estimated at $457.5 billion.

See, those poor families and the disabled do not generally vote Republican. As for the seniors, well, McCain is losing them too. So why not just go for the rich and trick as many others into voting for him using fear, dirty tricks and manipulation? Bring up Bill Ayers and any other bad guy Barack Obama didn't know when he was eight years old to make people forget about the realities of the two candidates' policies. You know, stuff like this:

The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, a Washington think tank, estimates that the McCain plan would cost the government $1.3 trillion over 10 years. The plan would allow as many as five million more people to have insurance, it estimates.

Mr. Holtz-Eakin said the plan is accurately described as budget neutral because it assumes enough savings in Medicare and Medicaid spending to make up the difference. He said the savings would come from eliminating Medicare fraud and by reforming payment policies to lower the overall cost of care. He said the new tax credits will help some low-income people avoid joining Medicaid. The campaign also proposes increasing Medicare premiums for wealthier seniors.

Sen. Obama also would rely on some Medicare savings to pay for his health-care plan, which would offer subsidies to help consumers pay for premiums. The Tax Policy Center estimates that his plan would cost $1.6 trillion over 10 years and cover 34 million more people.

Five million (minus those stripped of Medicare and Medicaid) versus thirty-four million more insured Americans. You can't even compare the two plans, they aren't even close.