The Salem News ?

I recently read an opinion on the Affordable Care Act in the Salem News. Being a Right leaning paper they called it Obama Care. They asserted, in their opinion, suppositions as facts. It became clear to me that they either never read the act or were just feeding their readers talking points of the Republican Party. I did not write a letter to the editor because they never seem to print mine. I did email this piece to the managing editor and owner. I am awaiting their response but not hopeful. I mean what can they really say?

First of all, under the health care bill, Medicare spending continues to go up year after year. The health care bill tries to identify ways to save money, and so the $500 billion figure comes from the difference over 10 years between anticipated Medicare spending (what is known as “the baseline”) and the changes the law makes to reduce spending. The savings actually are wrung from health-care providers, not Medicare beneficiaries and that is one of the false statements in your article. These spending reductions presumably would be a good thing, since virtually everyone agrees that Medicare spending is out of control. In the House Republican budget, lawmakers repealed the Obama health care law but retained all but $10 billion of the nearly $500 billion in Medicare savings, suggesting the actual policies enacted to achieve these spending reductions were not that objectionable to GOP lawmakers as they seem to be to your paper.. The Obama health care law also raised Medicare payroll taxes by $113 billion over 10 years, further strengthening the program’s financial condition, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Your papers article titled “Our Side” has no facts and very little truth. Shame on you. It is your job to tell the truth and present all the facts to your readers. There will be no reduction in spending on services for seniors in this bill. The Ryan plan will really cost future retirees in the future. Why don’t you write about that? I would just like to say what a crappy article for a newspaper to print. Do a little research next time so your readers can be informed not indoctrinated.

Gary Andres