Start printing out these coupons and hand them out to Senior Citizens. Let them feel the coupons and see the face of Medicare’s future DEMISE under a Romney-Ryan administration.

TARA WALL: “This ticket is unified. It is a unified ticket. I think with any ticket and with any personality you have differences. You have differences of viewpoints, you have different ways of handling things. But I think that they are certainly 100% on the same page and on the same path relative to saying that we have to reform Medicare… Offering options like vouchers and things like that and opportunities for folks to look at this from a common sense approach that will help to alleviate our debt and our burden on Americans to start solving problems for this, something that this administration has yet to do. So I think there’s boldness in that. And I think again there’s unity with this ticket.”

Check out Romney’s Medicare plan here.  Cut The Spending  It’s just re-packaged as a FIXED amount for seniors to shop around for healthcare insurance.

Medicare: Medicare should not change for anyone in the program or soon to be in it.  Nor should tax hikes be part of the solution. Reforms must honor commitments to our current seniors while giving the next generation an improved program that offers the freedom to choose what their coverage under Medicare should look like:

• Give future seniors a choice between traditional Medicare and many other healthcare plans offering at least the same benefits
• Help seniors pay for the option they choose, with a level of support that ensures all can obtain the coverage they need; provide those with lower incomes with more generous assistance
• Allow beneficiaries to keep the savings from less expensive options or choose to pay more for costlier plans
• These reforms will encourage insurers to lower costs and compete on the quality of their offerings
• Gradually raise the retirement age to reflect increases in longevity

From the Wall Street Journal and the Associated Press.  Romney Proposes to PRIVATIZE MEDICARE .

It would actually cost the GOVERNMENT MORE to provide traditional Medicare than it would for private insurance plans under Romney’s plan.  The government would charge higher premiums, and seniors would have to pay OUT-OF-POCKET with the COUPON system.

And ABC and the Wall Stree Journal report Romney said he would sign the Ryan Budget, if it crosssed his desk as POTUS.

Center On Budge and Policy Priorities: Under Ryan’s Plan, Seniors On Medicare Would Pay $6,350 More In Out-Of-Pocket Costs By 2022.

Center On Budget And Policy Priorities: Under Ryan’s Plan, Seniors’ Out-Of-Pocket Costs “Would More Than Double” By 2022.“Ryan’s budget plan would increase total health care spending attributable to Medicare beneficiaries (the beneficiaries’ share plus the government’s share) by upwards of 40 percent, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). While raising total health care spending for Medicare beneficiaries, the Ryan plan would reduce the federal government’s contribution to cover those costs.  As a result, it would massively shift costs to the beneficiaries — in other words, the elderly and persons with disabilities. The Ryan plan would gradually replace Medicare with a system of vouchers that seniors could use to help buy private health insurance.  Privatizing Medicare in this way would increase health spending substantially for two reasons, CBO explains. First, private health insurance plans have much higher administrative costs than traditional Medicare. Second, private plans cannot negotiate payment rates for health care providers that are as low as Medicare’s. In 2022 (when the voucher system would go into effect), total spending attributable to a 65-year-old Medicare beneficiary would rise from $14,700 to $20,500, or almost 40 percent. And this beneficiary’s out-of-pocket costs would more than double — from about $6,000 a year to over $12,000. (See graph.) These differences would grow even larger in later years, because the value of the voucher would not keep pace with the growth of health care costs.”

ROMNEY WOULD END MEDICARE AS WE KNOW IT AND TURN IT INTO A VOUCHER SYSTEM

UPDATE:  EXPLAINING  THE MEDICARE PLANS

The Romney-Ryan budget would end Medicare as we know it, turning it into a voucher program that would increase seniors’ health costs by $6,350 a year. Confused on the specifics?  Here’s a breakdown:

LA Times: Seniors would pay the price of Ryan’s plan to overhaul Medicare: http://lat.ms/Nxnohx

Think Progress has a fantastic graphic that breaks down the difference between the President’s plan and Paul Ryan’s: http://bit.ly/OgygRB

Romney adviser Tara Wall made perfectly clear this morning on CNN that Romney and Ryan are “unified” and “100 percent on the same page” when it comes to turning Medicare into a voucher system. Watch the video:  http://bit.ly/MXjqCE

And for good measure, our Truth Team explains:Five ways Obamacare strengthens Medicare http://bit.ly/OgyesK

Mitt Romney says he wants to run a clean campaign, but yesterdayhis campaign released yet another false attack ad. Independent news organizations, President Clinton, and a Republican author of welfare reform have already called these claims blatantly dishonest. Mitt Romney may think his only path to victory is through running false ads like this one, but the American people deserve better:  OFA Releases New Web Video on Mitt Romney’s Flagrant Hypocrisy: http://bit.ly/NnqZ5k

Huffington Post: Obama Campaign Responds To Romney’s ‘Complete And Utter Lie’ On Welfare: http://huff.to/RLRMrb

David Stockman, the former OMB Director under President Reagan, slammed the Ryan budget: NYT Op-ed: Paul Ryan’s Fairy-Tale Budget Plan “In short, Mr. Ryan’s plan is devoid of credible math or hard policy choices. And it couldn’t pass even if Republicans were to take the presidency and both houses of Congress.”  http://nyti.ms/RLRKQ0

ABC: Paul Ryan Tax Plan Could Raise Middle Class Taxes, Said Panel http://abcn.ws/RdtRmV