Two points:

To ignore the need to control Medicare costs would be utterly irresponsible (for any candidate). That McCAin’s people are talking honestly about that (unlike your candidate) is a PLUS.

Your basic thesis that McCain has a stealth agenda to cut benefits is just a rehash of the tired and tawdry “Mediscare” tactic that we see every election cycle.

It is dishonest and destructive.

How would he do it? -
First, he said by “eliminating fraud” and changing payment policies. (which suggests paying providers less, which means fewer docs will take medicare patients.)

After everyone pointed out that there is no way he can save $1.3 trillion that way,
he then said they’d save the money by:

“accelerating the computerization of health records, speeding the use of generic drugs, eliminating government subsidies for private Medicare Advantage plans, and requiring high-income beneficiaries to pay more for pharmaceuticals.”.

Let’s look at this list, item by item. While electronic medical records could reduce waste in the long run, experience has shown that it takes at least ten years for healthcare IT to begin to pay off. In the meantime, where would the Senator find the money to install the technology and train doctors and hospital staff to use it? Electronic medical records would be a fine investment: but this is not a way that Medicare can save billions over the next decade.
Installing ERMS and trraining people to use them is hugelly expensive. Experience shows that you cannot expect to save any money for at least 10 years.
Speeding the use of generics should reap some savings —though if you buy generics, you have probably noticed that prices are spiraling. As for eliminating the bonus that Medicare now lavishes on private insurers that offer Medicare Advantage, that would trim spending by $16 billion. But that’s still far from the $1.3 trillion that McCain aims to save.

Finally, what about the last item: “requiring high-income beneficiaries to pay more for pharmaceuticals�? Let me suggest that this gets to the heart of the matter . . .

Raising co-pays is a way of cutting benefits.

There are, in fact, many, many ways to very quietly cut benefits. The Bush administration raised Part B co-pays for all Medicare reciipients by an average of 11 PERCNET a year, from 2000 to 2007.

Then Bush added a 13 percent surcharge for wealthier seniors.

Now McCain is planning yet another surcharge for wealthier seniors.

And, as I explained in the piece, if you keep raising co-pays on wealthier patients, many healthl care economists predict that they will beginning dropping out of Medicare . . .

This means the program begins to lose support. And there will be less money to care for the less wealthy seniors left on the plan.

moving to electronic medical records.”

But the cost of installing EMRS and training people to use them is so high that one cannot expect Any savings in 10 years.