<font size="4" face="georgia, serif">Dear Visionaries,</font><div><font size="4" face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div><div><font size="4" face="georgia, serif">I'm dividing up a 3600-word column into three parts. The full version is attached and the column on health is appended.</font></div>
<div><font size="4" face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div><div><font size="4" face="georgia, serif">Both RealClear Politics (290-248) and FiveThirtyEight (296.6-241.4) agree that Obama will win the Electoral College, and both predict a 52-48 Demo majority in the Senate.</font></div>
<div><font size="4" face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div><div><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:large;line-height:19.428571701049805px"> </span><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:large;line-height:19.428571701049805px">Read all my columns on the 2012 election at <a href="http://www.NickGier.com/2012.pdf">www.NickGier.com/2012.pdf</a>.</span></div>
<div><font size="4" face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div><div><font size="4" face="georgia, serif">Even though the candidate exercise on the web put me in Jill's camp, I will vote Green only if we had a parliamentary system where other parties have a much better chance.<br>
<br></font></div><div><font size="4" face="georgia, serif">I'll be glad when this election is over,</font></div><div><font size="4" face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div><div><font size="4" face="georgia, serif">Nick</font></div>
<div><font size="4" face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:150%"><b><span style="line-height:150%;background-color:white"><font size="4" face="georgia, serif">THE ROMNEY/RYAN REIGN OF ERROR:</font></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:150%"><b><i><span style="line-height:150%;background-color:white"><font size="4" face="georgia, serif">False Claims on Obamacare
and Medicare</font></span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:150%"><b><i><span style="line-height:150%;background-color:white"><font size="4" face="georgia, serif"><br></font></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;line-height:150%"><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:large;background-color:white;line-height:150%;text-indent:0.5in">Out of 513 statements tested
by PolitiFact, Obama and Biden have a total of 147 mostly false, false, and
pants on fire.</span><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:large;background-color:white;line-height:150%;text-indent:0.5in"> </span><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:large;background-color:white;line-height:150%;text-indent:0.5in">That is a record of 71 percent
truth-telling.</span><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:large;background-color:white;line-height:150%;text-indent:0.5in"> </span><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:large;background-color:white;line-height:150%;text-indent:0.5in">Out of 231 statements
Romney and Ryan have 100 mostly false, false, and pants on fire.</span><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:large;background-color:white;line-height:150%;text-indent:0.5in"> </span><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:large;background-color:white;line-height:150%;text-indent:0.5in">They were telling the truth only 57 percent
of the time. </span><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:large;background-color:white;line-height:150%;text-indent:0.5in"> </span><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:large;background-color:white;line-height:150%;text-indent:0.5in">Here are the major errors
on health care.</span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.25in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:150%;background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><font size="4" face="georgia, serif"><span style="line-height:150%">·<span style="line-height:normal">
</span></span><i><span style="line-height:150%">In his debate with Biden,
Ryan claimed that his Medicare proposals were bipartisan</span></i><span style="line-height:150%">. The truth is that Democratic Senator Ron
Wyden withdrew as co-sponsor of Ryan’s bill because it “pulls the safety net
out from under the poorest and most vulnerable seniors.” </span><b><span style="line-height:150%"></span></b></font></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.25in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:150%;background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><font size="4" face="georgia, serif"><span style="line-height:150%">Earlier Clinton’s top
economic adviser Alice Rivlin, after working with Ryan on Medicare reform,
reported that she could not support his new plan. Under it seniors would have
to pay much more because the growth rate for his vouchers would not keep up
with rising medical costs. The
Congressional Budget Office estimates that Medicare recipients would be paying
40 percent more by 2022.</span><b><span style="line-height:150%"></span></b></font></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.25in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:150%;background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><b><span style="line-height:150%"><font size="4" face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.25in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:150%;background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><font size="4" face="georgia, serif"><span style="line-height:150%">·<span style="line-height:normal">
</span></span><i><span style="line-height:150%">Romney, Ryan, and the
Republicans have distorted the $716 billion in savings (not cuts) in Medicare
spending over 10 years</span></i><b><span style="line-height:150%">.<i> </i></span></b><span style="line-height:150%">First, it must be noted that this same
amount, on Ryan’s recommendation, has been taken completely out of health care
by the GOP House. Second, there is no
reduction in benefits to seniors. <b></b></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.25in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:150%;background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="line-height:150%"><font size="4" face="georgia, serif">Third, $216 billion will be saved by phasing
out subsidies to Medicare Advantage, a cadillac, but sometimes highly
restrictive, private insurance option that costs 14 percent more than
Medicare. A Harvard study has found that
over 8 years Medicare Advantage has overpaid providers by $282.6 billion. </font></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.25in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:150%;background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><font size="4" face="georgia, serif"><span style="line-height:150%">·<span style="line-height:normal">
</span></span><i><span style="line-height:150%">In the first debate Romney
assured that seniors over 60 did not need to listen to his plans for Medicare
reform</span></i><b><span style="line-height:150%">.</span></b><span style="line-height:150%"> If Romney repeals the
Affordable Care Act, then (1) seniors will pay more for drugs (the “doughnut
hole” will remain); (2) they would pay on average of $347 more per year in
Medicare premiums (Obamacare reins them in); (3) seniors would be responsible for
their own preventative care (from which 26 million Americans benefited saving
an average $614 each due to the Affordable Care Act); and (4) Medicare would go
broke six years earlier.<b></b></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.25in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:150%;background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><b><span style="line-height:150%"><font size="4" face="georgia, serif"> </font></span></b><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:large;line-height:150%">·<span style="line-height:normal"> </span></span><i style="font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:large;line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%">Romney, Ryan, and the GOP
keep scaring Americans that Obamacare is a government take-over of health care.</span></i><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:large;line-height:150%"> PolitiFact declared this as “Lie of the Year
2010.” The principle of the individual
mandate was originally a Republican idea, which many Democrats—even those in
the Massachusetts Legislature—rejected but Romney promoted. Obama and the Democratic Congress rejected
the tried and true principle of single payer option in favor of a much less
efficient system of free choice among private insurance options.</span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%"><font size="4" face="georgia, serif"> </font></span><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:large;background-color:white;line-height:150%">·<span style="line-height:normal"> </span></span><i style="font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:large;background-color:white;line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%">Even though it is not true,
Romney keeps saying that </span></i><i style="font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:large;background-color:white;line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%">Independent Payment Advisory Board of the
Affordable Care Act will put “the government between you and your doctor” and
Ryan says that “it will deny care to seniors.” </span></i><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:large;background-color:white;line-height:150%"> The
board’s task is to monitor Medicare payments and to propose reductions, upon
the approval of Congress, to those payments.</span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><span style="line-height:115%"><font size="4" face="georgia, serif"> </font></span><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:large;background-color:white;line-height:150%">The Affordable Care Act is
explicit in excluding the board from doing these alleged actions: it cannot
“include any recommendation to ration health care, raise revenues or Medicare
beneficiary premiums, or otherwise restrict benefits or modify eligibility criteria”
(</span><a href="http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf" style="font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:large;background-color:white;line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%;color:black">Section 3403 </span></a><span style="font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:large;background-color:white;line-height:150%">).
Sarah Palin called this board a “death panel” and she won the 2009 Lie
of the Year.</span></p>
<p style="margin-left:.25in;line-height:150%"><font size="4" face="georgia, serif">·<span style="line-height:normal">
</span><i><span style="background-color:white">Romney said recently that</span></i><i> “we don’t have people who die because they don’t have health
insurance.”</i> A 2009 Harvard Medical School study estimated that
45,000 American die each year because they are uninsured. <b> </b></font></p>
<p style="margin-left:.25in;line-height:150%"><font size="4" face="georgia, serif">To put a personal face on this tragedy—unique
in the industrial world—there is the sad story of Republican activist Beth
Rickey, who died alone in a motel room in Santa Fe on September 12, 2009. She was seriously ill, had no health
insurance, and had spent her life savings on what little medical care she could
afford.<b></b></font></p>
<h1 style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:5.3pt;margin-left:.25in;line-height:150%;background:white"><font size="4" face="georgia, serif"><span style="line-height:150%;font-weight:normal">·<span style="line-height:normal">
</span></span><i><span style="line-height:150%;font-weight:normal">In the first debate Romney said that he would keep
Obamacare’s ban on preexisting conditions.</span></i><span style="line-height:150%;font-weight:normal">
Immediately after the debate Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said that Romney
misspoke, and that Romney “will give the states initiatives and money so that
they can manage these decisions on their own.” Romney’s “plan” was later
corrected to apply only to “continuous coverage,” which of course leaves out
those uninsured or periodically insured. </span><span style="line-height:150%;font-weight:normal"></span></font></h1>
<h1 style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:5.3pt;margin-left:.25in;line-height:150%;background:white"><font size="4" face="georgia, serif"><span style="line-height:150%;font-weight:normal">·<span style="line-height:normal">
</span></span><i><span style="line-height:150%;font-weight:normal">In the first debate Romney said under Obamacare “up
to 20 million might lose health insurance.</span></i><span style="line-height:150%;font-weight:normal">”<i> </i>Romney cited a CBO study which instead concluded that employer-sponsored
coverage would most likely decrease by 3-5 million. These people would not be forced out of these
plans, many of which have become very expensive; rather, they would choose
better deals in Obama’s free-market insurance exchanges.</span></font></h1>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in;line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%"><font size="4" face="georgia, serif">Cynics
say that all politicians lie, but I say choose the ticket with the most truth
telling and a credible record for governing during the worst recession since
the Great Depression.</font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in;line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%"><font size="4" face="georgia, serif"><br></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in;line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%"><font size="4" face="georgia, serif">Nick
Gier taught philosophy at the University of Idaho for 31 years. </font></span></p></div>