On July 24, the Congressional Budget Office sent a letter to House Speaker John Boehner, detailing the budget impact of repealing the Affordable Care Act. If Congress overturned the law, “spending for Medicare would increase by an estimated $716 billion over that 2013–2022 period.”

That comes from Romney’s right: Obamacare cuts Medicare by $716 billion, at the Washington Post’s Wonkblog.

Here is CNN’s Soledad O’Brien trying to deny Obama’s $716 Billion cut in Medicare. John Sununu tells her she should wear an Obama bumper sticker on her forehead when she says this stuff because she’s a puppet for the Obama campaign.

O’Brien tries to hide behind the claim that even though $716 Billion has been cut in payments to health care providers and to Medicare Advantage plans, that these do not represent a cut in Medicare benefits. Technically, that is (somewhat) correct but it’s like saying someone who has siphoned all the gas out of your car’s fuel tank has not disabled your car because the car itself remains in tact.  Sure it does, but until you get some gas in the tank it won’t start.  It’s the same with Medicare. The money available for reimbursement payments to health providers under Medicare has been cut by $716 Billion. Soledad O’Brien is dead wrong when she denies this simple truth. To say the benefits to Medicare patients remain the same when their doctors and hospitals won’t get paid for treating them is dishonest. It turns Medicare into an insurance company that won’t pay claims, but insists you still have insurance. Obama could raise Medicare “benefits” to the sky and that will do a Medicare patient little good if they find can’t find a doctor to treat them or a hospital to admit. That is what must happen because doctors and hospitals can’t afford to provide care for the pittance that Medicare will pay them. Unless Obama plans to abolish the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution [by executive order of course] and introduce slavery for health care providers, Medicare “benefits” are thus illusory.

The claim that Paul Ryan’s Plan keeps the cuts is wrong also because as the CBO letter of July 24th states, the repeal of Obamacare restores that $716 Billion to Medicare. Ryan’s plan includes the repeal of Obamacare.

There is no limit to how far off logic and reason an info babe like Soledad O’Brien will go to defend the indefensible if it is to protect her Democrat darlings. Of course, nobody knows this unless they read blogs because almost nobody is watching CNN anymore, CNN Ratings Drop to Lowest Since 1991. In 1991 there was no Fox News and no blogosphere, and conservative talk radio was still in its infancy. CNN had the 24-hour news format to itself, so it never learned to compete by offering content that people want.