Rubio, After Visiting Site Of Charleston Shooting, Talks Medicare Costs, Tax Code

The Associated Press: Rubio Visits Charleston Church Where 9 Worshippers Killed
At the town hall meeting [after his off-camera visit to the church in Charleston, S.C., Sen. Marco] Rubio appearing relaxed and jovial and was applauded loudly at times. He drew laughs with some quips about himself, while fielding a wide range of questions from the largely GOP audience. ... On the topic of the country's finances, he said the country's growing $18 trillion debt is caused by how Social Security and Medicare are structured, saying future generations may need to retire later in life. "Anyone who is in favor of doing nothing is in favor of bankrupting these programs," he said. But he noted he would not change the entitlement programs for those 55 and older, a group that includes his mother in Florida. "I'm against anything that's bad for my mother," he said. (Bustos, 9/7)

The Associated Press: Clinton, Rubio Court Puerto Rico Voters As Crisis Looms
Puerto Rico's financial crisis loomed over dueling Friday campaign appearances by Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republican Marco Rubio, two presidential contenders with sharply different positions on a key issue for Puerto Rican voters whose influence is growing in U.S. politics. ... At the round-table discussion, Clinton, with pen and notepad in hand, said she came to "listen" and asked questions about reimbursement rates under Medicaid and Medicare, the exodus of doctors from the island and the lack of access Puerto Rican veterans have to full health-care coverage. "You can't solve the health care crisis without addressing the economic crisis," she said. (Bustos and Coto, 9/4)

The Washington Post: Ben Carson’s Claim That ‘We Have 10 Times More People On Welfare’ Since The 1960s
Ben Carson, a neurologist who is seeking the GOP presidential nomination, asserted in a television interview that government efforts to ease poverty have largely been a failure. He specifically made two claims — that $19 trillion has been spent on anti-poverty programs since the mid-1960s and that “we have 10 times more people on welfare.” ... Doug Watts, a Carson campaign spokesman, said, “We’re speaking of means-tested public assistance programs.” ... Watts also provided two other figures, though without providing a source: In 1965, Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) “had roughly 400,000 cases (recipients),” he said. “In 2015, TANF (the successor to AFDC) had 3.1 million recipients. That alone is 8 times.” Definitions are important for this number, which is made up primarily of people on Medicaid (64.9 million people in 2014) and food stamps (46.5 million in 2014). But Medicaid is increasingly aimed at the elderly (people in nursing homes) or the disabled. (Kessler, 9/8)