Dean Baker: President Obama Did Not "Raid" the Medicare Trust Fund

[ProSense]

President Obama Did Not "Raid" the Medicare Trust Fund

The NYT had an article reporting on how the presidential campaigns plan to make Medicare an issue in Florida as they compete for older voters. At one point it quotes Ed Gillespie, a senior adviser to the Romney campaign:

"The fact is, we’re going to go on offense here. Because the president has raided the Medicare trust fund to the tune of $716 billion to pay for a massive expansion of government known as Obamacare."

It would have been helpful to point out to readers that President Obama did not "raid" the Medicare trust fund. This concept literally has not meaning. The trust fund holds U.S. government bonds that correspond to the surplus it has accumulated over the years. President Obama did not default on these bonds, which means that he has not pulled any money out of the Medicare system.

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Either Mr. Romney's senior advisor is completely clueless about the way the economy works or he is deliberately misrepresenting President Obama's actions. Either case would make an interesting news story.

http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/president-obama-did-not-qraidq-the-medicare-trust-fund

[NRaleighLiberal]

1. If the MSM gets any lazier, they will rival "too tired to do Florida" Mitt!

[ProSense]

2. Too many people

including Mittwit, spewing crap they know nothing about.

[Igel]

3. The same is true for the Social Security trust fund.

Does that mean nobody's raided it?