On Monday, September 10, "Special Report with Bret Baier" aired a fact-check story that was prepared by Chief Washington Correspondent James Rosen and that focused on various statements made by the Obama-Biden and Romney-Ryan campaigns concerning their respective Medicare policies.
Rosen reported correctly that the Congressional Budget Office last year concluded that under Rep. Ryan's budget plan -- the first he offered as chairman of the House Budget Committee -- future Medicare recipients, presently aged 54 or younger, "would bear a much larger share of their health care costs than they would under the current program."
Rosen erred, however by using this plan as a focal point in his reporting and by failing to state explicitly that the CBO conclusion he cited concerned the chairman's first budget plan. Rosen should instead have focused on Rep. Ryan's more recent budget plan, on which he collaborated with Sen. Ron Wyden, the Democrat from Oregon, and which is more commonly cited in current news reporting about the campaign. Of this plan, the CBO stated in its March 2012 report: "CBO has not analyzed the policies that might be implemented to produce such a path for Medicare spending, including a premium-support approach to Medicare of the sort that Chairman Ryan and other Members of Congress have recently discussed."
Rosen regrets his error.
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