Romney Campaign Press Release - Romney Campaign: President Obama Using Medicare as a Piggy Bank For Obamacare

"There is only one candidate in this race who has made cuts to Medicare that have affected current seniors, and that is President Obama. In order to pay for Obamacare, he raided the Medicare piggy bank and took $700 billion out of the Medicare program and shifted it to Obamacare. That's wrong and Mitt Romney will restore that money to Medicare." – Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney Senior Adviser

"State Of The Union"

CNN

August 19, 2012

ERIC FEHRNSTROM, ROMNEY SENIOR ADVISER: "Well, I think that it is important to understand, Jim, that going forward one of the principles that Romney, the Romney-Ryan ticket will follow in reforming Medicare is that none of the changes would affect current beneficiaries. There is only one candidate in this race who has made cuts to Medicare that have affected current seniors, and that is President Obama. In order to pay for Obamacare, he raided the Medicare piggy bank and took $700 billion out of the Medicare program and shifted it to Obamacare. That's wrong and Mitt Romney will restore that money to Medicare. And of course as I said, one of the important principles he will follow in reforming that entitlement is making sure that none of the changes affect current seniors and that means people who are age 55 or above."

"This Week"

ABC

August 19, 2012

KEVIN MADDEN, ROMNEY SENIOR ADVISER: "Starting on Saturday, what you saw was a Romney-Ryan ticket come together with shared values and shared principles about how we would restore those cuts to Medicare and how we would make it more solvent. What President Obama did, actually weakens Medicare. It takes $700 billion out of it and uses it to spend on a new entitlement which is part of Obamacare. So it actually takes the money away from Medicare and spends it in a new way, and that's the wrong approach, that's actually going hurt current beneficiaries right now. What Romney-Ryan does is actually restore those cuts, puts it back into Medicare to make it more solvent because that's what we need to do and then it actually looks at other ways which we can continue to make Medicare solvent for future generations. And it doesn't affect any of the beneficiaries that are currently in Medicare. So, those are very big differences."

"Fox News Sunday"

Fox

August 19, 2012

ED GILLESPIE, ROMNEY SENIOR ADVISER: "Chris, there are other reforms as well. As you know, Governor Romney supports gradually increasing over time, bringing the Medicare eligibility age in line with the Social Security retirement age. Secondly, this Congressional Budget Office notes..."

CHRIS WALLACE: "By 2016? Because I thought that was also only..."

GILLESPIE: "It's phased in. It would extend the solvency. The Congressional Budget Office says that the assumptions about the Medicare Trust Fund Part A being solvent through 2024 under the Obamacare proposal is unrealistic and that is a fact. What you know is that, as we heard Robert Gibbs say, they are funding Obamacare by taking $716 billion out of Medicare now, current beneficiaries affected by it. People who paid in to the program for guaranteed health insurance are now seeing that money go to other purposes and that is wrong and we welcome this debate. I think that's why you see Governor Romney, Paul Ryan in Florida yesterday talking about the need to save this for future generations to repeal Obamacare and restore those cuts and reform it to save it."