Rogers Standing Up for Medicare? Hardly

Is Mike Rogers having second thoughts about that vote for the Paul Ryan budget? That would be the budget that killed Medicare as we know it.

Judging from the volume of mail being sent to Livingston County voters regarding Medicare, you have to wonder. In the last few weeks, a group called the Partnership to Protect Medicare, based in Washington, D.C., has been filling mailboxes with expensive direct mail pieces claiming that the 8th District Republican has been "standing up for our seniors by preserving Medicare Part B" and other such nonsense.

Of course, Rogers did exactly the opposite when he voted for the Ryan budget earlier this year. He voted to turn Medicare into a voucher program that would drive up the cost of medical care for seniors by taking away their guaranteed coverage under the Medicare program and forcing them to buy coverage on the open market.

It's unclear what vote Rogers may have cast to protect Medicare, but the saturation mailings are helping to disguise his vote for the Ryan budget. By insisting over and over again that Rogers somehow stood up for Medicare, his supporters, whoever they actually are, are muddying the issue in voters minds so that they won't realize he voted exactly the opposite way.