This may not be reflective of all seniors but I’ll tell you this much … repealing Obamacare would weaken Medicare IMMEDIATELY and at least the members of this audience know that.  Paul Ryan blatantly lies that Obamacare weakens Medicare; that’s laughable.  This guy has lost all credibility.  He used to have a brand of being a numbers wonk and an honest ‘conservative’ but let me tell you … the guy is a total wanker.  Paul Ryan is the guy who wants to privatize Social Security and has referred to it as a “welfare transfer system” (source).  A recent study showed that repealing Obamacare would increase out of pocket costs for seniors IMMEDIATELY (source) and as we have shared before … the Romney/Ryan plan would lead to one eventuality – killing Medicare (source).

The Washington Post details what the environment was like at the AARP annual convention HERE:

“You know President Obama’s slogan, right?” Ryan told the crowd of seniors gathered in a ballroom of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center on Friday. “’Forward’ — forward into a future where seniors are denied the care they earned because a bureaucrat decided it wasn’t worth the money.”

“Lie!” one woman in the crowd yelled as others booed. “Liar!” yelled another.

The crowd was silent for most of Ryan’s speech and applauded him as he took and left the stage. But some attendees responded with loud disapproval of Ryan’s criticisms of Obama as well as during some of his descriptions of his own Medicare plan.

At one point, when Ryan told the ballroom that “all that we need now is leaders who have the political will to save and strengthen Social Security,” one man loudly quipped: “Got one!”

At other points in his speech, scattered attendees yelled out, “No vouchers!” and “Tax the one percent!”

As we have written HERE:

Under the Obama plan – Medicare is still solvent until 2024.  Obama’s plan thanks to Obamacare increases benefits and eliminates the donut hole for out of pocket expenses for seniors completely by 2020 (source).  That means by 2020 – seniors will pay NOTHING in out of pocket expenses by 2020.  Obama’s plan does not require increasing the retirement age.

Under the Romney/Ryan plan – Medicare would be insolvent in 2016.  Romney would cut benefits by raising the retirement age.  Romney’s repeal of Obamacare would mean seniors would continue to pay money out of pocket due to a gap in coverage in the Medicare program.  In 2022 – out of pocket expenses for seniors would balloon to $12,500 a year (source).  They would turn the Medicare Guarantee into a voucher plan increasing out of pocket expenses every single year by maintaining benefit increases at rates lower than the rate of inflation … thus equaling a tremendous rate cut.

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