Gov. Romney picked up that position during the first televised debate.
“The idea of cutting $716 billion from Medicare to be able to balance the additional cost of Obamacare is in my opinion a mistake,” he said when the topic of Medicare came up at the first debate.
Romney didn’t add much to that during the second debate. He never brought up the $716 billion figure, although he did mention Pres. Obama’s promises to overhaul Medicare and said, “This is a president who hasn’t done what he said he’d do.”
Romney went further, blasting the President for not making any specific proposals for reforming Medicare beyond trimming it. According to The Hill, the Obama camp’s response to criticism of that sort—although the President himself didn’t offer such a response during the second debate—has been to note that some analysts have predicted Obamacare will extend Medicare’s life span by eight years.
Once during the second debate, in response to a question about the economy, Gov. Romney indicated “there’s no question that Obamacare has been a tremendous deterrent.” Romney also chided the President for promising to cut health insurance premiums under Obamacare by $2,500 a year when in reality, according to Romney, premiums have increased, not decreased, by that same amount.
Summarizing his position on healthcare and other issues, Romney said, “If you were to elect Pres. Obama, you know what you’re going to get—you’re going to get a repeat of the last four years,” which, according to Romney, were crushing to the country.
Pres. Obama also stuck to familiar positions and introduced nothing newsworthy about healthcare during the second televised debate. He said nothing about $716 billion and made no effort to defend his projected cuts to Medicare as he had done during the earlier debate.
During the first televised debate, Obama had taken care to reassure seniors that his cuts to Medicare wouldn’t adversely affect people already receiving Medicare services. During the earlier debate, the President said the cuts already in place—which he agreed totaled $716 billion—were the result of “no longer overpaying insurance companies” and “making sure we weren’t overpaying providers.” As a result of the cuts, the President said, “We were actually able to lower prescription drug costs for seniors by an average of $600, and we were also able to make a significant dent in providing them the kind of preventive care that will ultimately save money throughout the system.”
But during the second debate, what little attention the President gave to healthcare focused more on criticizing Romney than on defending his own positions.