President Obama and his campaign have offered a series of defenses of the roughly $700 billion in Medicare cuts that he enacted as part of his national health care law. Briefly, they are: the cuts only deal with overpayments to private insurers and providers; the cuts do not affect benefits; the cuts extend the solvency of Medicare; and Mitt Romney’s new running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., included the cuts in his own budget. Let’s take a moment to unpack each of these.

At the outset, let me say that I don’t oppose cutting Medicare, because I believe we’re going to need to reduce spending on the program if we’re going to do something about the program’s long-term health. But if Democrats are going to attack Romney and Ryan for wanting the end the program, it’s worth at least being honest about what Obamacare actually does.