MITT ROMNEY PRESS | 18 OCTOBER, 2012 – 07:07

“President Obama may not want to talk about his second-term agenda, but he’s already laid out his plans for the next four years. The President has promised trillions of dollars in new debt, higher taxes on middle-class families, and devastating cuts to Medicare that will impact today’s seniors. Americans simply can’t afford four more years like the last four years. As president, Mitt Romney will deliver a real recovery by reforming our outdated tax code, creating 12 million new jobs, and strengthening Medicare for the next generation.” – Andrea Saul, Romney Campaign Spokesperson

President Obama Won’t Lay Out His Second-Term Agenda, But We Already Know What It Will Be – More Crushing Debt And Wasteful Spending:

Under President Obama’s Policies, The National Debt Is Projected To Surpass $20 Trillion By The End Of 2016 – An Increase Of More Than $4 Trillion In New Debt. (“Fiscal Year 2013 Mid-Session Review: Budget Of The U.S. Government,” Office Of Management And Budget, 7/27/12)

• President Obama Has Already Presided Over A National Debt That Has Surpassed A Record $16 Trillion – An Increase Of $5.5 Trillion On His Watch. (US Department Of The Treasury, Accessed 10/15/12)

President Obama Has Promised To Pass Yet Another Stimulus Bill If He Has The Opportunity In A Second Term. QUESTION: “Can I ask just maybe — the President always says or likes to say we’ve created 4.5 million jobs. Given his fascination with that number, can we get any expectation from him of what he thinks we’ll be able to create in the next four years?” … CARNEY: “What the President does is focus on his policy proposals. And what you saw with the American Jobs Act is that rather than make predictions of — like you’re seeing from Governor Romney of ‘my one-sheet plan here will create 12 million jobs’ — the President put forward a comprehensive job creation proposal, legislation that went before Congress, and we made no assessments of how many jobs it would create.” (White House Press Briefing, 8/7/12)

• President Obama’s Latest Stimulus Will Cost $450 Billion And Bears A Strong “Resemblance To The 2009 Stimulus Bill.” “In a last-gasp attempt to jolt the economy and his reelection prospects, President Barack Obama on Thursday put forward a $447 billion jobs package, challenging Congress to shut down the “political circus” and pass his bill as soon as possible. … The president went bigger than expected with his $447 billion plan, a mix of tax cuts, state aid, jobs programs and construction projects that satisfied many Democrats but few Republicans, given its resemblance to the 2009 stimulus bill.” (Carrie Budoff Brown and Jennifer Epstein, “In Jobs Speech, Obama Urges Passage Of $447 Billion Package,” Politico, 9/8/11)

Congressional Budget Office: Obamacare’s Coverage Provisions To Cost $1.68 Trillion By 2022. (Congressional Budget Office, 7/24/12)

Politico, On President Obama’s Spending Policies: “If Obama Were To Get His Way On All Fronts, The Outlook Remains Grim.” “And even if Obama were to get his way on all fronts, the outlook remains grim. The federal debt held by the public would still nearly double again from $10.1 trillion at the end of 2011 to $18.8 trillion at the end of 2022. For the current fiscal year ending Sept. 30, CBO is now projecting a shortfall of $1.3 trillion. In fiscal 2013, the deficit will still hover near the $1 trillion mark — about $977 billion. “ (David Rogers, “CBO: Exploding Debt Under Obama Policies,” Politico, 3/16/12)

Politico Headline: “CBO: Exploding Debt Under Obama Policies” (Politico, 3/16/12)

How Will President Obama Pay For His Explosion In Debt? More Taxes On Middle-Class Families:

American Enterprise Institute Has Calculated That The Annual Cost Of President Obama’s Current And Looming Debt Burden Amounts To $4,000 Per Year In Higher Taxes On The Middle Class. “In a new paper, AEI’s Matt Jensen looks at the real annual cost of servicing the debt for households at various levels of income — including a potentially higher tax burden. As the table below illustrates, a household making between $100,000 and $200,000 a year could find its tax liability higher by roughly $2,400 every year. Over ten years, that works out to $24,000. And when you add in the debt already accrued the past four years under President Obama (the second table), that’s another $1,600 a year. So now we are now talking about $4,000 a year, $40,000 over ten years.” (James Pethokoukis, “Study: Obama’s Big Budget Deficits Could Mean A $4,000 A Year Middle-Class Tax Hike,” American Enterprise Institute, 10/2/12)

And President Obama Has Already Raised Taxes On Nearly 5 Million Middle-Class Americans In Obamacare. (“Payments Of Penalties For Being Uninsured Under The Affordable Care Act,” Congressional Budget Office, 9/12)

• An Analysis By The Congressional Budget Office Found That “Nearly 80 Percent Of Those Who’ll Face” Obamacare’s Mandate Tax Are In The Middle Class. “Nonetheless, in his first campaign for the White House, Obama pledged not to raise taxes on individuals making less than $200,000 a year and couples making less than $250,000. And the budget office analysis found that nearly 80 percent of those who’ll face the penalty would be making up to or less than five times the federal poverty level.” (“Tax Penalty To Hit Nearly 6M Uninsured People,” The Associated Press, 9/19/12)

But President Obama’s Tax Hikes Won’t Be Enough – He’s Also Cutting $716 Billion From Medicare To Pay For Obamacare:

According To The Nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, Obamacare Cuts $716 Billion From Medicare. (Congressional Budget Office, Letter To Speaker John Boehner, 7/24/12)

• President Obama’s Senior Campaign Aide Has Bragged That President Obama “Achieved” $700 Billion In “Cuts In Medicare.”CUTTER: “Well, you know ask the wealthy to pay a little bit more. Cut waste from the government. Reform Medicare. More than $300 billion in savings from Medicare. On top of the savings we’ve already achieved. You know I heard Mitt Romney deride the $700 billion cuts in Medicare that the president achieved through health care reform.” (CBS’s “Face The Nation,” 8/12/12)

Obamacare’s Cuts Will Cause Enrollment In Medicare Advantage To “Plummet By About 50 Percent” And Leave Seniors With “Higher Out-Of-Pocket Costs.” “In addition to flagging provider cuts as potentially unsustainable, the report [HHS] projected that reductions in payments to private Medicare Advantage plans would trigger an exodus from the popular alternative. Enrollment would plummet by about 50 percent. Seniors leaving the private plans would still have health insurance under traditional Medicare, but many might face higher out-of-pocket costs.” (Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, “Report Says Health Care Will Cover More, Cost More,” The Associated Press, 4/23/10)

• The Medicare Trustees Project These Cuts Will Drive 4 Million Seniors Out Of Medicare Advantage Plans By 2018. (Medicare Trustees Report, 4/23/12)

The Medicare Actuary Has Estimated 15% Of “Hospitals, Skilled Nursing Facilities, And Home Health Agencies” Will Be In The Red Before The Decade Is Over. “In the Office of the Actuary‘s April 22, 2010 memorandum on the estimated financial effects of the Affordable Care Act, we noted that by 2019 the update reductions would result in negative total facility margins for about 15 percent of hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and home health agencies. This estimated percentage would continue to increase, reaching roughly 25 percent in 2030 and 40 percent by 2050. In practice, providers could not sustain continuing negative margins and, absent legislative changes, would have to withdraw from providing services to Medicare beneficiaries, merge with other provider groups, or shift substantial portions of Medicare costs to their non-Medicare, non-Medicaid payers.” (“Projected Expenditures Under An Illustrative Scenario With Alternative Payment Updates To Medicare Providers,” Center For Medicare & Medicaid Services, 5/13/11)

52 Percent Of Doctors Say Obamacare Will Compel Them To Close Or Significantly Restrict Their Practices To Medicare Patients.(Merritt Hawkins, “Health Reform and the Decline of Physician Private Practice,” The Physicians Foundation, October 2010)