Jake Tapper fact-checks Bernie Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez claim, and it’s not pretty...the left will lie to you with a straight face if it gives them power.

Jake Tapper fact-checks Bernie Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez claim, and it’s not pretty

Aug 17, 2018 7:13 pm

CNN's Jake Tapper fact-checked a claim from Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and fellow democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and it did not go well for them. (Image Source: YouTube screenshot) 

Follow

Carlos Garcia

Article GoalINFORM

CNN’s Jake Tapper fact-checked a claim from democratic socialists Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez about universal healthcare, and it did not go well for them. 

“They say a study funded by the billionaire Koch Brothers who are generally I think it’s fair to say, libertarians and conservatives,” Tapper explained, “that the Medicare-for-all proposal would actually save the government money.”

“Let me thank the Koch Brothers,” said Sanders on a recorded video, “of all people, for sponsoring a study that shows that Medicare-for-all would save the American people $2 trillion dollars over a ten year period.

“It shows that Medicare for All is actually much more, is actually much cheaper than the current system we that pay right now,” said Ocasio-Cortez in another video Tapper aired. 

“Is that true?” asked Tapper rhetorically. “Did a study funded by the Koch Brothers indicate that Medicare for All would actually save the U.S. government trillions of dollars?”

“No, it’s not true, at least not according to the author of the study,” he said. 

Tapper goes on to show how Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez made a misleading claim based on assumptions made by Sanders, and not as a conclusion of the study funded by the Koch Brothers. 

“That study’s author says that that $2 trillion drop is not actually his conclusion,” Tapper added, “he said that’s based on assumptions made by Senator Sanders.”

“It is likely that the actual cost of [Medicare-for-all] would be substantially greater than these estimates,” wrote Charles Blahous of the Mercatus Center, “which assume significant administrative and drug cost savings under the plan, and also assume that health care providers operating under [Medicare-for-all] will be reimbursed at rates more than 40 percent lower than those currently paid by private health insurance.” 

Here’s the video of Tapper’s fact-check:

Tapper said CNN was not trying to make a judgement on the viability of Medicare-for-all, and even offered that they did not know if the Koch Brothers tried to influence the findings of the Mercatus Center study. 

“But it does seem pretty clear that the presentation being made by Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez about this study lacks a lot of context,” Tapper concluded, “and the author of the study says they are not being accurate.”