Written by Diana Robinson-Bardyn   

Congresswoman Sandy Adams (FL-24) came to our small beach town on April 27th, (New Smyrna Beach, Florida) for a listening session with constituents. I applaud elected officials' willingness to meet and greet, and out of respect and interest, I attended. Sandy met us surrounded by a platoon of “Path to Prosperity" charts designed to corroborate the standard GOP rhetoric of gloom and doom, i.e., if we do not adopt Paul Ryan’s world view and budgetary insights, it will be the end of freedom and prosperity and apple pie.

Sandy was prepared to offer a bold reassurance to current seniors. Seniors were asked to raise their hands and were told that they fell into that lucky category of "untouchables" for whom nothing would change. Really?

“What the Republicans are saying — that this won’t affect seniors now, that the cuts are all off in future years — is flat out false,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). “In the reform bill that we passed, we solved, over time, the problem of the Donut Hole — the dreaded coverage gap that seniors fall into when their prescriptions can’t be paid for any longer. That solution to the donut hole problem gets repealed by the Ryan budget. And that will hit home right away to seniors in Rhode Island and seniors across this country.”

So if you have an elected official promoting the Paul Ryan budget and making false promises to the seniors in your district, why not bring the facts to their attention? Here's what FactCheck.com has to say.

“Ryan’s budget plan does indeed reinstate the so-called “doughnut hole,” a gap in Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage. As the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said: “The proposal would repeal the provisions that created the Independent Payment Advisory Board and that expanded subsidies for the ‘coverage gap’ in Part D (a range of spending in which many enrollees have to pay all of their drug costs, sometimes called the doughnut hole).” — FactCheck.com

Phone or email your Congressional Representative today.