This is something I'm actually surprised the media hasn't been going over.

One portion of the Affordable Care Act was how to pay for it, which is novel compared to Medicare Part D during the Bush years.  Some of the revenue was money redirected from Medicare.  $716 billion is, let's face it, a lot of money, but not enough to completely fund the bill.  Still, it's a nice chunk of change.

A big portion of that money was from funds paid to private insurers who provide Medicare Part D.  Remember, the rationale for going through the private market was that it would help keep costs down by providing competition.  However, what many people may have forgotten is that part of Medicare Part D meant that those insurance companies--paid by the government, remember--would get paid more than the Medicare program itself would, and they'd get this bonus for every patient they signed up.

Why did private insurers get this bonus payment in the first place?  I believe that "private markets are always better and more efficient" Republican President George W. Bush said it was to keep them competitive with the offerings of the government's own program.  Funny how the private sector is charging more than the public sector.  You'd think they can't compete without the extra money.

But I digress.

Part of what Willard Romney did at Bain Capital was put the squeeze on companies.  If they found a way to make a company pay less, they did it.  This meant firing people, renegotiating contracts and more.  One thing Bain Capital never did was pay anybody too much, except the people at Bain Capital.

 Romney's said, repeatedly, that he will "restore the $716 billion" that President Obama is "taking" from Medicare.  Now, from a business standpoint he should actually admire the "taking".  President Obama is ending overpayments to insurers and providers and using the savings to cover other costs.  

 When Mitt Romney says he's going to restore that $716 billion, all it means is that he is planning to maintain the overpayments to insurers and providers.  From a business standpoint, that's lousy business.  And this is the kind of management he says he'll bring to government?  He should just hand his MBA back to Harvard now and be done with it.