Opinion

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LLOYD BROWN
Published: September 19, 2012

Expect liberals to go into full-court press over the next few weeks with Mediscare. This is a tried and true tactic — using scare stories and lies about entitlement programs, especially Medicare. Leftists are claiming that Mitt Romney wants to "privatize" Medicare, using "vouchers," and that it will ruin the (already doomed) program.

Utter and complete nonsense. There are no vouchers.

The truth about the Romney plan is the exact opposite. What Obama and the other socialists want to do is destroy the private insurance and health care markets. The moral responsibility, however, is to deliver the highest quality, lowest cost health care possible, which is what a private market unburdened by meddlesome politicians does.

Romney has said he will seek repeal of the Affordable Cart Act, which cuts $716 billion from Medicare and tries to spend that money twice. Romney will lead the fight for market-based health care reform, address the entitlement problem and try to get a grip on the runaway spending and record deficits President Barack Obama and the liberal Congress incurred.

Conservatives need to fight to keep the record straight. When Democrat Lawton Chiles ran for re-election as governor in 1994 against Jeb Bush, one of Chiles' aides ran a phone bank that called thousands of elderly residents in South Florida and told them Republicans would take away their Social Security.

Admittedly, the health care issue is vastly complex and not easy to comprehend or cure. But at the very least there should be agreement on the facts. Then, argue about the solution.

Straight talk or deceit. That's the choice.

Lloyd Brown is the retired former editorial page editor of the Florida Times-Union.