Democrats have decided to frighten seniors into believing their Medicare benefits will be lost under Republican budget plans, senior GOP Congressman Steve King contends in an exclusive Newsmax.TV interview.
In the wake of the Democratic win in a New York House seat last week, the party will continue to push what the Iowa representative termed “Mediscare.”
“There is no group of people that is easier to scare with untruthful statements than the seniors in America,” King said. “The older people get the more likely they are to be scared by just plain, blatant dishonesties that are perpetrated on this subject matter.
“Seniors in America should remember that President Obama and Obamacare cut Medicare by $532 billion – that’s over a half a trillion dollars that they took out of the proceeds that would be used to provide Medicare services to seniors.”
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But he said the budget proposed by Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan “puts that money all back and uses it to help save Medicare and save Medicare Advantage.”
Democrats believe, mistakenly, that they could have a winning strategy for next year, King said.
“Democrats have decided that they can push this Mediscare issue and they believe that they can scare enough people, especially seniors that they will win the majority back in November 2012.”
And he lashed out at some of his own party who are not fighting back aggressively against the Democrat tactic, saying too many think they have to say something just once and everyone will get the message.
“The real world doesn’t work that way,” he said. “We have got to get better at messaging. I don’t think we are good enough at it by any means and we are not eager enough to take on the other side and we have been too reticent to directly challenge the president of the United States.”
King, the chairman of the House subcommittee on immigration policy and enforcement, hailed last week’s Supreme Court decision upholding Arizona’s law that would take business licenses away from companies that hire illegal aliens.
“It’s a big, landmark decision,” he said, adding that he believes it will clear the way for the court to uphold the same state’s law allowing law enforcement officers to search people suspected of being there illegally.
And, he said, other states should now follow Arizona’s lead. “They have an open path to do so and I hope they do."
But he mocked Obama’s comment, made in El Paso, Texas, that people who have strongest views against illegal immigration want “moats with alligators” to keep out people crossing the border from Mexico.
“His staff served him poorly – he must not have known that, in order to get into the United States illegally across the border from El Paso, you have to first climb a fence, then swim or wade the Rio Grande river, then climb another fence, then swim or wade the canal, then climb a third fence, and in between the fences are patrol roads that are patrolled by the Border Patrol.
“It couldn’t be any more close to what the president was ridiculing,” he said. “The Border Patrol has been very proud of the effectiveness of their control at El Paso."
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