In an attempt to distract Americans from the Romney-Ryan plan to end Medicare as we know it, Mitt Romney is trying to claim that his running mate Paul Ryan’s Medicare proposal is actually a bipartisan idea. Pointing to a policy paper that both Ryan and Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden worked on, Romney claimed, “Paul Ryan and Senator Wyden said, ‘No, we need to restore, retain and protect Medicare … That’s what our party will do.”

Only problem? That’s completely made-up.

As Sen. Wyden was quick to point out, Romney and Ryan’s plan is nothing like the policy Wyden backed. Here’s what Sen. Wyden had to say about Romney’s distortion:

“Governor Romney is talking nonsense. Bipartisanship requires that you not make up the facts. I did not ‘co-lead a piece of legislation.’ I wrote a policy paper on options for Medicare. Several months after the paper came out, I spoke and voted against the Medicare provisions in the Ryan budget. Governor Romney needs to learn you don’t protect seniors by making things up, and his comments sure won’t help promote real bipartisanship.”

Ryan himself has noted that Wyden’s policy proposal is not the same as Ryan’s actual budget that he hopes to get passed into law. The fact is that Ryan’s Medicare plan would force seniors to pay more out of pocket for health care and Romney has whole-heartedly embraced it. Romney’s rhetoric is not enough to distract Americans from what he actually plans to do to programs that seniors and middle-class Americans rely on. Like his welfare attack and his false claims about Ohio early voting rights, Romney’s defense of their plan to end Medicare as we know it is a blatant distortion.