Sen. Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.) attacked Paul Ryan's proposed budget on the Senate floor Thursday with a discredited claim, declaring it "takes the Medicare promise and it shreds it."
BOXER: This is a giant nightmare. These are supposed to be the golden years. Well, the people who lose this will have lost the golden Medicare guarantee. I'll tell you that. But here's the final point. The Republicans say 'Oh, if you had Medicare, don't worry, you're fine.' Baloney. If you end Medicare, destroy it like they do over there, the Republicans, the people left in it are part of a dying program, a dying program that is being fazed out. Who is going to try to improve the quality of that program? It's going to be like fixing an Edsel or fixing your typewriter. There is no more Medicare. It's going to be a program that is dying, that is being fazed out, and that will hurt current senior citizens. So let's be clear. The Ryan budget, the Republican budget, takes the Medicare promise and it shreds it, destroys it and it's the end.
The claim that the Ryan budget "destroys" Medicare is not new, nor is its refutation. The fact-checking website PolitiFact dubbed that claim the "Lie of the Year 2011." The Washington Free Beacon included it in the five worst Ryan myths last year after his selection as Mitt Romney's running mate:
Ryan’s plan, which he has since revised with the help of Oregon Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, would provide government subsidies to future retirees that would allow them to purchase health insurance plans from a variety of private options. Under the Ryan-Wyden proposal, traditional Medicare would be preserved as an option.
The plan proposes to drive down Medicare’s unsustainable costs through market forces, namely increased competition. It would limit the program’s growth to an annual rate of GDP plus 0.5 percent, which is identical to what President Obama has proposed. [...]
Medicare chief actuary Richard Foster has said that although Ryan’s proposed reforms have the "potential" to prevent Medicare from going bankrupt within the next 10 to 12 years, he is "less confident" about Obama’s plan.
