Tuesday’s Starting Point began with a bang (and a whimper, on our end) as host Soledad O’Brien and Romney surrogate John Sununu entered into a heated argument over Medicare.

“I understand that this is a Republican talking point because I’ve heard it repeated over and over again,” said O’Brien after Sununu insisted the Romney and Ryan plans were different. “And these numbers have been debunked, as you know, by the Congressional Budget Office.”

“No they haven’t,” said Sununu.

“Yes, they have,” answered O’Brien.

“Oh boy!” said us.

“I have the Congressional Budget Office Budget report right here,” Sununu said, waving it on camera. “Go read page 13 and 14.”

“I can tell you what it says, yes,” said O’Brien. “It cuts a reduction in the expected rate of growth, which you know. Not cutting benefits to the elderly. Benefits will be improved. The focus is on hospitals. The focus is on health insurance.”

“He gutted the program by $711 million,” said Sununu of Obama. “And the fact is he reduces services to Medicare beneficiaries currently on the package. What the difference is, is that Romney says no impact to anybody 55 or over. It is clear in here that the reduction in services start on January 1, 2013 and Obama stole that money to put it into programs under Obamacare…”

“The hospitals agreed to that,” O’Brien countered. “The drug providers agreed to that because their theory is that what they’re going to be able to do is make up by the number of people who come into the system. It doesn’t reduce or cut the benefits. Right….”

“Soledad, stop this!” said Sununu. “All you’re doing is mimicking the stuff that comes out of the White House and gets repeated on the Democratic blog boards out there….”

“I’m telling you what FactCheck.com tells you,” she insisted. “I’m telling you what the CBO tells you. I’m telling you what CNN’s independent analysis does.”

“Put an Obama bumper sticker on your forehead when you do this,” Sununu shot back.

“You know. Let me tell you something,” she continued. “There is independent analysis that details what this about and repeating a number–”

“No there isn’t,” he interrupted.

“Yes there is,” she replied.

“Eek!” we screamed

“No,” Sununu insisted. “There’s Democratic analysis.”

The CBO report that Sununu and O’Brien were discussing is available here. The pages that Sununu refers to detail the amount by which Medicare spending would increase if the Affordable Care Act were repealed, but contain no references to reduced benefits to senior citizens.

Have a look, courtesy of CNN:

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