Mitt Romney keeps saying that President Obama “robbed” Medicare of $716 billion in order to pay for Obamacare.

He also keeps saying that the $716 billion are cuts to Medicare services and benefits.

Both statements are flat-out lies.

As I’ve explained over and over and over, the “cuts” to Medicare come from savings, reductions in waste and fraud, and ending taxpayer subsidies to insurance companies. Mitt Romney promises to put the $716 billion back into Medicare, which necessarily means Mitt Romney wants to increase fraud and waste in the Medicare system.

Then again, it is no surprise that Romney favors waste and fraud since he and Bain Capital profited from such waste and fraud: Mitt Romney actually sat on the board of a company that plead guilty to charges of defrauding Medicare and agreed to pay the largest healthcare criminal fraud fine in history at the time – more than $35 million.

From blue aardvark at Daily Kos:

From the delightful gift that is John McCain’s opposition research on Mitt (courtesy of namelessgenxer) comes the sordid tale of Mitt’s tenure on the board of Damon Clinical Laboratories, which plead guilty to charges of defrauding Medicare and agreed to pay what was at the time the largest health care criminal fraud fine in history – $35,300,000. They also agreed to larger civil fines which totaled $83,700,000.

I originally published this back in January, but given the recent focus on Bain it’s worth a revisit. Also, I’m republishing this to The Bain Files to add to that archive of Mitty evildoings. The time line goes as follows. 1988: Damon begins a systemic practice of fraud. The government estimates later that the total cost to taxpayers of this fraud is around $40,000,000 1990: Bain Capital (CEO Mitt Romney) buys a minority stake in Damon. Mitt takes a seat on the board of directors 1990 to 1993: Mitt serves on the board of directors, earning ~$10,000 per year for doing so. He is on the company’s “Strategic Planning” committee 1992: Romney said that [Damon’s then-CEO Robert] Rosen told the board in about 1992 ‘that all current practices at the company were now in conformity with government regulations and that in the past there may have been practices which would not be deemed appropriate. 1993: Damon is taken over by Corning, with Mitt Romney voting in favor of the acquisition 1993: Corning immediately closes Damon’s Massachusetts plant and lays off 115 workers 1993: Corning uncovers the fraud and alerts authorities. The SEC filings made by Damon prior to the acquisition make no mention of any potential earnings write-downs or legal problems 1993: Mitt Romney’s share of Bain’s profit from the Damon investment: $473,000 1993: Bain’s profit from its investment in Damon: $7,400,000, which represented a tripling of the initial investment 1994: Running for Senator, Mitt Romney says:

I’m proud of the small part I played in the growth of Damon,’ Romney said yesterday. ‘It’s something that Ted Kennedy doesn’t have a clue about – creating real jobs in the private sector. 2002: While running for governor, Romney claims that he helped uncover the fraud by starting an investigation. This version of events is disputed by Corning and by the Federal Prosecutors. Mitt also says he never alerted the authorities, which no one disputes. (read the rest)

Mitt Romney is a liar and a fraud. Nothing else need be said.

[cross-posted at ABLC]