USA Today: “Obama Administration Eases Pain of Medicare Cuts — Millions of seniors in popular private insurance plans offered through Medicare will be getting a reprieve from some of the most controversial cuts in President Barack Obama’s health care law. In a policy shift critics see as political, the Health and Human Services department has decided to award quality bonuses to 
hundreds of Medicare Advantage plans rated merely average.” What do we have here? Let me translate this for you. This is another waiver from Obamacare. This one for seniors so they can keep the Medicare Advantage plans that they chose. They were originally gonna have to get rid of ’em but now as we head into a reelection effort, uh-oh, so while he’s out there in a partisan way apparently not benefiting from it, still accusing the Republicans of the usual death threats against seniors, here comes Obama saying, “You know what, I’m gonna give you a waiver.” Right. Obama, his Most Merciful has spared the seniors. His presidency, Barack Hussein Obama, the Pharaoh Unlimited, peace be upon him, praise be his name, has exempted the seniors from further Medicare cuts. They get to keep their Medicare Advantage. Another waiver from the regime, another tacit admission that Obamacare hurts the very people it is intended to assist.
Dick Morris writing in TheHill.com claims that Obama’s cuts to Medicare from which seniors were just exempted are more immediate and drastic than what Paul Ryan has called for. “Piously posturing as the savior of Medicare, President Obama lashed out at the House Republicans for embracing the budget proposed by Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). But a comparison of the president’s own plans for Medicare with those in the Ryan budget shows that the Democratic cuts are far more immediate and drastic than anything in the GOP proposal. While the Republican Medicare changes only take effect in 2021, Obama’s cuts will begin hurting seniors right away.” That’s why they had to be exempted from it yesterday. That’s why Obama had to grant a waiver to seniors on Medicare Advantage, because his Medicare cuts cause pain today.
“The president’s healthcare legislation imposed a hard spending cap on Medicare, the first time it has ever had one — which he has just proposed lowering by another one-half of 1 percent of GDP (a further cut of about $70 billion a year). Obama’s cuts, which will take effect immediately, are to be administered by his newly created Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB).” Now, folks, you’re going to hearing IPAB, Independent Payment Advisory Board. You’re going to be hearing a lot more about IPAB in the days and weeks ahead, and I want to tell you today, April the 20th, what IPAB is. IPAB is the death panels. That’s all you need to know. Don’t doubt me. IPAB is where the rationing will take place. “The Independent Payment Advisory Board, 15 members appointed by the president. Its recommendations for cuts in Medicare services or for reductions in reimbursement will not be subject to congressional approval but will take effect by administrative fiat. Right now.”
IPAB is the death panel. IPAB is rationing of health care. And again, just to tell you what it is, “The Independent Payment Advisory Board, 15 members appointed by the president. Its recommendations for cuts in Medicare services or for reductions in reimbursement will not be subject to congressional approval but will take effect by administrative fiat. Right now.” Obama’s Medicare cuts, the death panels, the rationing, starts now. That’s why the seniors in the USA Today story just previous to this were granted a waiver from it because it’s drastic, it’s rationing, and it wasn’t supposed to happen ’til 2013, but now, you know, it’s happening before the election, it’s not the way it was supposed to happen, it’s been elevated some or sped up. So here comes a waiver.
Now, all the while here’s Obama claiming that it’s Paul Ryan who wants to kick seniors to the curb. Paul Ryan does not cut, the Republican budget plan does not cut one dime from current recipients. The Ryan plan is very clear. Current recipients who are playing by the rules of the game that they lived by and lived with up until the age of qualification are not going to be affected by rules changes in the middle of the game. We’re gonna have to because of necessity change the rules for future retirees and we’re going to do it far enough out that the future retirees will be given plenty of time to plan for it. This is where Trump on this program last Friday was dead wrong when he talked about the how far out the Ryan plan is. I asked him, “You say far out, do you mean distance-wise or do you mean it’s radical?” And he said, “No, there’s no reason to cut seniors like this. I’m not gonna cut seniors.” I made a point in the interview, I said, “The Ryan cuts on seniors don’t occur for years. Current retirees, current recipients do not face one change. There’s not one rules change under Paul Ryan, but under Obama it’s immediate.” And not to be repetitive or redundant, but to be repetitive and redundant it was just yesterday that Obama granted another waiver to senior citizens to keep them away from his IPAB board who could have denied them coverage just because they wanted to.
You’re gonna be reading this acronym, you’re gonna be seeing it all over the place. It has now surfaced. Stanley Kurtz has a long piece about it at National Review. The Independent Payment Advisory Board, one more time: Fifteen members on this board appointed by Obama. The board makes recommendations for cuts in Medicare services or for reductions in reimbursements. In other words, these are the death panels. These are the people that are gonna decide who gets coverage and how much coverage will be paid for, ergo the rationing. Congressional approval, there will be none. Whatever this board decides case by case happens by administrative fiat. Ryan’s approach is totally different. First, he does nothing at all to cut benefits for those now on Medicare or for anybody who turns 65 before 2022. Second, the Republicans would leave the elderly in charge of their own medical decisions by letting them spend their Medicare however they wish. It’s a voucher program.
The Ryan proposal is a genuine intelligent fix. Just remember now, while Obama is out trashing Ryan and trashing his Medicare proposals, while Trump’s out doing that, I can’t say this enough, I have learned that repetition is what it takes for something to finally be driven home to people. Forget everything you’ve heard about death panels. Yes, they’re in; no, they’re not. We snuck ’em in; no, we got ’em out. They’re there. There is one death panel. It is IPAB, the Independent Payment Advisory Board. Current Medicare recipients, individual cases, decided on by these 15 people. Two things. Will there be coverage or not, and if so, how much will they be paid? You can appeal, but to the secretary of Health and Human Services, nobody else. You’re sunk. You are fini with Obamacare, pure and simple. Oh, and don’t forget, as I pointed out, the last thing we mentioned on the program yesterday, Obama had a meeting to kick-start the whole immigration reform proposal and plan, and one of his lieutenants will be none other than the Reverend Sharpton.
Obama has vowed again to get immigration reform going. There’s gonna be a major push here, we need the voters, he’s lost the independents. He needs the Hispanic vote. And the polling data, this Washington Post/ABC poll, folks, it is filled with stuff, and it also shows that Obama is losing big with minorities, primarily Hispanics, somewhat with African-Americans. I have a pretty good idea how they’re gonna sell the immigration plan. They could do everything they can to avoid this being called amnesty. That will kill ’em. They know it’s amnesty and don’t have a chance, so they’re gonna structure it in an entirely different way, but for the Democrats that want immigration reform, it’s about getting those voters. And I’m not talking about the illegal aliens being registered to vote. I’m talking about there’s trouble out there in river city in terms of registered Hispanic voters. He’s losing support throughout the spectrum, including with African-Americans. Not much there, but he’s still on the downward swing.
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