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White House New Media Director Macon Phillips took to the official White House blog to rebut Republican charges that Reid’s health care bill will cut Medicare benefits. 

First, he writes: “Not one penny from the Medicare trust fund will be used to pay for reform...” This is obviously false. Reid’s bill raises Medicare payroll taxes by $53.8 billion over 10 years to pay for reform. Medicare payroll taxes are supposed to go into the trust fund, but instead they’re being used to pay for reform.  That’s 5.38 trillion pennies.

That’s not even the only thing wrong with that sentence! He goes on to write that “no guaranteed benefits will be cut.” This is an enormous concession. Elsewhere on the White House site is a video denying that any benefits would be cut for any Medicare beneficiaries, but now it’s only guaranteed benefits.  Under current law, traditional Medicare has a list of benefits it must cover, but Medicare Advantage plans allow seniors to get all those guaranteed benefits plus additional benefits at no additional cost, like dental and vision coverage. CBO Director Doug Elmendorf said in his testimony before the Senate Finance Committee that Medicare Advantage beneficiaries would see these additional benefits reduced by half after Democrats cut Medicare Advantage programs. Is the White House now finally acknowledging that millions of seniors on Medicare Advantage will see their benefits cut?

Finally, Phillips dares to call these changes “improvements to the Medicare program.” Unbelievable. Despite tortuous logic arguing to the contrary, the Senate bill, which cuts Medicare by almost $500 billion, will result in cuts to Medicare benefits, and will take money from the Medicare trust fund to pay for a new entitlement program.