Debate Fact Check: Seniors Can’t Trust Washington Lobbyist David Jolly

We’re already seeing why Pinellas  seniors can’t trust lying Lobbyist Jolly to tell the truth about important issues like Medicare and Social Security . Here are the facts about Washington Lobbyist Jolly’s record on seniors’ issues:

Lobbyist Jolly lobbied on and praised the Ryan Budget that turns Medicare into a costly voucher program.  

• Tampa Bay Times: “In this instance, he was meeting with Paul Ryan on the Ryan budget and the topic of Social Security came up.”
   
• PolitiFact: “When we looked into the rules of lobbying, it seems that the situation as he describes it — being at a meeting but not actively pushing the measure with elected officials — technically counts as being part of a communication about the proposal […]But when it comes to the letter of the law, the way Jolly describes the incident counts as lobbying, experts say.”
   
• Jolly Said There was “A Lot of Good” in Budget that Would End Traditional Medicare:  Jolly: “I think there was a lot of good in the Ryan budget.” [Bay News 9, 12/08/13]
   
• After Jolly lobbied Ryan, Ryan Offered a Budget Turned Medicare into a Voucher Program with Slower Rate of Growth than Healthcare Costs.  “To move us to surpluses, Ryan’s budget proposes reforms that are nothing short of violent. Medicare is privatized. Seniors get a voucher to buy private insurance, and the voucher’s growth is far slower than the expected growth of health-care costs.” [Washington Post, 2/01/10]
  
  
• CBO: “Enrollees’ Spending for Health Care and the Uncertainty Surrounding that Spending Would Increase.” “Both the level of expected federal spending on Medicare and the uncertainty surrounding that spending would decline, but enrollees’ spending for health care and the uncertainty surrounding that spending would increase. Under the Roadmap, the value of the voucher would be less than expected Medicare spending per enrollee in 2021, when the voucher program would begin […]Beneficiaries would therefore face higher premiums in the private market for a package of benefits similar to that currently provided by Medicare. Moreover, the value of the voucher would grow significantly more slowly than CBO expects that Medicare spending per enrollee would grow under current law.” [CBO, 1/27/10]

Lobbyist Jolly lobbied on Social Security for extreme group that supports privation, said “everything should be on the table, including private accounts.”

• Tampa Bay Times: “A 2009 lobbying disclosure report indicates David Jolly worked on Social Security reform on behalf of a conservative interest whose CEO expressed support for privatizing accounts..”
• Tampa Bay Times: On Social Security, Lobbyist Jolly says “Everything should be on the table, including private accounts.”
  
  
• Tampa Bay Times’ Daniel Ruth: “…Jolly had registered as a lobbyist for offshore oil drilling interests and a group that wants to privatize Social Security. But if Jolly is to be believed, he has carved out a unique lobbying specialty of getting hired by offshore oil drilling supporters and Social Security reformers precisely not to lobby on those issues. Is Washington not a great city of opportunity?”