While Barack Obama was warning a crowd in Virginia that Republican John McCain would slash funding or Medicare, the government health care plan for senior citizens, his campaign was running an ad with the same message in Florida and U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson was telling reporters the last thing America needs now are cuts in benefits.

"Now is not the time to privatize Social Security, and it's certainly not the time to cut Medicare and Medicaid, which John has proposed," Nelson said in a conference call for the Obama campaign. "And you've got a clear difference there between him and Barack on some very, very important issues to a lot of peple in this country."

Now, McCain indeed has supported adding private savings accounts to Social Security. But the Medicare claim is based on an analysis of the liberal-leaning Center for American Progress, which showed McCain's plan would cut Medicare and Medicaid spending by $1.3-trillion over 10 years to pay for his health care plan. That includes $882-billion from Medicare.

McCain's campaign is crying foul, saying McCain supports the same sorts of streamlining of Medicare as Obama, who proposes cutting about $15-billion by eliminating excess payments to HMOs.

Our friends at Politifact will be sorting it all out shortly...

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