Since 1996, Republicans and Democrats have traded charges that the other party either has or plans to cut a valued social program such as Social Security or Medicare when instead the rate of growth in the program is being slowed. In 1996, Democratic President Bill Clinton accused Republican Party nominee Bob Dole of attempting to “cut” Medicare by 0 billion. The Republican plan could only be characterized as a cut in relation to projected spending. In 2004, Democratic nominee John Kerry accused Republican President George W. Bush of planning to cut Social Security benefits by 30 percent to 45 percent when what Bush actually had proposed was limiting increases in future benefit levels to the rate of inflation. In 2012, each presidential campaign accused the other side of supporting cuts to Medicare. In each case, the relevant questions are: “What is the baseline? Is it the current level of funding or projected future rate of growth?”