MEDICARE

Romney: Ryan on ‘Same Page’

Vow to restore $716 billion to trust fund.

Mitt Romney is pushing back at critics and trying to highlight the differences between his plans for Medicare and Paul Ryan’s budget proposal. Romney promised to “restore that $716 billion to the Medicare trust fund,” which his campaign has accused President Obama of trying to “rob” to pay for his health-care plan. Critics have said that Ryan’s budget plan incorporates the same $700 billion in savings. But Romney says they are running on his budget, not Ryan’s, adding, “I’d get us to a balanced budget faster than the plan [Ryan] originally put forward” and that his proposed highest tax rate of 28 percent is higher than Ryan’s.