Blunt Campaign Airs New "Misleading" Ad Because They're Not At All Concerned About Blunt's Record on Medicare

I see that Roy Blunt has a new campaign ad about Medicare exactly one business day after Roy Blunt was confronted about his statements that it would have been "best" if Medicare and Medicaid had never been created, and his statement that "Medicare has never done anything to make people more healthy."

The ad focuses on changes in future Medicare spending in the new health care law. KMBC's Micheal Mahoney looked at this claim from Blunt last week, and made it clear that "current Medicare benefits are not cut under the bill."    PolitiFact.com picked apart the claims a few weeks ago when they appeared in a similar pro-Republican ad. 

It's important to note that the law does not take $500 billion out of the current Medicare budget. Rather, the bill attempts to slow the program's future growth, curtailing just over $500 billion in future spending over the next 10 years. Medicare spending will still increase -- the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects Medicare spending will reach $929 billion in 2020, up from $499 billion in actual spending in 2009...

The ad loses points for accuracy because the $500 billion aren't actual cuts but reductions to future spending for a program that will still grow significantly in the next 10 years. The ad also says those cuts will "hurt the quality" of seniors' care. But we find that to be a highly contentious subject, and the 60 Plus ad doesn't hint at any of the ways that the reductions are ways to make Medicare more efficient. Finally, the ad doesn't mention any of the benefits to seniors, such as improved prescription drug coverage. The ad seems more intent on attacking the health care law than accurately describing this complicated piece of legislation. Because it leaves critical facts out of its description in a way that gives a misleading impression, we rate the statement Barely True.