The CBO has scored Obamacare version 543–or is it 642?–and it either cuts the deficit, or it doesn’t, is neutral on the deficit, or has no idea. In the latest wrinkle, the CBO says that Medicare fixes–whatever those are–will put the bill in the red. From the story:
Congressional budget scorekeepers say a Medicare fix that Democrats included in earlier versions of their health care bill would push it into the red. The Congressional Budget Office said Friday that rolling back a programmed cut in Medicare fees to doctors would cost $208 billion over 10 years. If added back to the health care overhaul bill, it would wipe out all the deficit reduction, leaving the legislation $59 billion in the red.
The so-called doc fix was part of the original House bill. Because of its high cost, Democrats decided to pursue it separately. Republicans say the cost should not be ignored. Congress has usually waived the cuts to doctors year by year.
Who cares? The CBO “scoring” is all a sham. The office must take the presumptions in the legislation–no matter how rosy–and project years ahead as to what the fiscal impact will be, what the tax collections will be, etc. They do their best, but it doesn’t matter. It’s very rarely accurate and almost always under estimates the costs of these things.
But again, so what? Once the bill is passed, the CBO projections don’t mean a thing.
So, what is the CBO “score” today? It doesn’t matter. It’s part of the legislative corruption, er, process. It’s really all just part of the show.
March 20th, 2010 | 5:43 pm
http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/rep-lewis-called-n-word-tea-party-prote
If this report is true and black Congressmen were called [deleted] and gay Congressman Barney Frank a [deleted] by the Tea Party anti-health care rally, is this the fault of the Democrats for pushing a health care plan that conservatives don’t like? Were the signs threatening gun violence the fault of the Democrats?
Is that the conservative message? Do things our way or we may kill you?
Wesley J. Smith Reply:
March 20th, 2010 at 9:32 pm
I don’t allow that language on this blog. You wish it were true, and if it is, only those who would hurl such odious epithets are responsible. Plus, could have been lefties trying to discredit the protesters. Who knows? Besides, SHS has no connnection with Tea Party protesters, so there is no purpose served in bringing it up.
March 20th, 2010 | 11:31 pm
I’m a Tea Partier Wesley and was honored to speak at a couple big events in Carson City and Reno. It was euphoric to be with these people. I didn’t see any of the nonsense ascribed to them above. Almost all of them are hard working, salt of the earth citizens who want to be left alone by their government and are tired of professional thieves like Barney Frank and his enablers like Jeffrey who use the powers of government to rob them of the fruit of their labor. They are also infuriated by the corruption they are seeing in bills like this where you have a con man like Congressman Alcee Hastings saying there are no rules and they make them up as they go. Nice. It’s the Tea Partiers country too and they are tired of seeing it hijacked by a bunch of political gangsters. I can’t wait until November and 2012.
As to infiltrators, anyone who lives in Nevada who is following the upcoming election in November is aware that there are people-probably associated with Harry Reid-who are trying to highjack the Tea Party name and form a “Tea Party” party. We suspect it is to peel off votes from the eventual Republican nominee to take on Harry Reid. No one in the movement knows the guy-or has worked with him. Maybe some of the kooks we have seen across the country in the movement have been plants like these people too.
March 21st, 2010 | 12:34 am
Given that Rep. Lewis is one of the ones making this charge, I’m more than a bit skeptical. If, indeed, some have hurled such disgusting racial epithets, they and ONLY they should be condemned, not the Tea Party people as a whole.
March 21st, 2010 | 8:23 am
Isn’t this mob mentality seen in DC the logical extension of the constant drumbeat of apocalyptic fear-baiting from blogs such as this, FOX “News”, and the modern Republicans? Tea Party “patriots” hear and absorb “government takeover, facists, communists, redistribution of wealth, birth certificate, FEMA camps, death panels, bailouts, maoists, nazis and socialists” daily, hourly. The fact is the modern Republican Party strongly supports the Tea Party patriots with their signs of our President as a nazi, as a communist, as a joker; their signs that say “Warning: If Brown Can’t Stop it a Browning Can” replete with a photo of a pistol.
Do as we say or we’ll kill you. Nice.
Dom Nelson,
I’ll bite. How is the Obama administration robbing the salt of the earth, middle class patriots of the fruits of their labors?
The reason I single out the current adminstration is that there were no Tea Party patriots to protest President Reagan’s massive tax increases on the middle class or President G. W. Bush’s trillion dollar giveaways to the wealthiest taxpayers and the massive, backbreaking debt these Republicans left. The Patriot movement was invigorated during the Clinton years when he raised the top marginal rate a few percent, nearly balancing the budget.
But it was when President Obama gave tax breaks to the poor and middle class that the Patriots were really reawakened. By their actions the Patriots seem to defend the tax status of the wealthiest of us, not the working classes. Please try to understand my skepticsm of the purported philosophical underpinnings of this movement.
It’s a common ploy to describe the worst of a movement as ‘infiltrators’ to make the group look bad. If that’s the case, it’s working.
bmmg,
Why do you question the honesty of Rep. Lewis?
March 21st, 2010 | 1:53 pm
The CBO score presumes that the reduction (25% if I remember correctly) in Medicare reimbursement rates will be enacted and never repealed. Does anyone seriously believe this is the case? I would bet literally my entire net worth that the reimbursement cut will never actually take place. It’s being put into the bill to make it look deficit-neutral.
I suppose I expect a bit of obfuscation in budget numbers, but the CBO score for this bill just seems entirely fake. If it is, and we wind up spending lots and lots and lots of money we didn’t expect, where will we find the revenue? Our existing entitlements have us on the fast track to a major fiscal crisis already.
March 21st, 2010 | 8:22 pm
Jeffrey, they are robbed not only by the confiscatory taxes we pay now, but by the debt Obama is piling up. Obama is spending trillions and trillions that do not have to be spent and they or their kids are going to have to pay it back. There’s not enough rich people making over 200k a year to pay it back. That means the middle class is going to have to do it just like they always do. They get it. That’s why they are furious. We’ve gone from a democracy to a kleptocracy.
I have yet to see any tax break from Obama. I must be rich!
March 21st, 2010 | 10:20 pm
Dom Nelson,
What qualifies as a confiscatory tax? Since taxes were lower during Mr. Obama’s first year how has he confiscated your money?
Individuals received a $400 tax credit and couples $800 as part of the Democratic stimulus package. Most workers
see about a $13 per week increase in their take-home pay. In 2010, the credit would be about $7.70 a week.
The very same tax cuts have necessarily added to the deficit. When you cut taxes, deficits increase. Mr. Reagan proved this and Presidents Bush and Bush confirmed it. In fact, Mr. Reagan and Mr. G.H.W. Bush nearly tripled the national debt during their terms! Mr. GW Bush only doubled the national debt with his tax cuts. Did you disagree with their tax policies?
Where were the Tea Party Patriots when Mssrs. Reagan, Bush and Bush were loading us, our children and our grandchildren with massive debt?
Frankly, your arguments are illogical. No, I think the problem is you don’t like progessive Democratic policy and will say or do anything to defeat it. There’s nothing wrong with that but why not be honest?
March 21st, 2010 | 11:04 pm
Jeffery: “Why do you question the honesty of Rep. Lewis?”
Because it’s difficult for race-baiters to change their stripes.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122394063621930725.html
“By raising questions about Barack Obama’s relationship with terror-bomber William Ayers, the Republicans are ‘sowing the seeds of hatred and division,’ Mr. Lewis said. ‘During another period, in the not-too-distant past, there was a governor of a state of Alabama named George Wallace who also became a presidential candidate. George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their Constitutional rights. Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama.’”
March 22nd, 2010 | 9:19 am
Jeffrey, let me ask you again, where are you going to get the money to pay for your progressive policies? Where are you going to get the money? Where are you going to get the money to save social security, medicare, Obama Care, or for that matter the post office, bail out the public employee unions or states like CA? Do you really think some taxes here and there on the rich is going to do it? There aren’t enough of them and if you confiscated all their money and income you couldn’t pay for this. You and your progressive policy types have loaded trillions and trillions of dollars of debt onto the pubic. Someone has to pay that back. It will be, as usual, the middle class. You are participating in inter generational theft. You progressives are robbing from the future. You are spending money you haven’t earned on yourself and enslaving future generations to pay it back. Can you say 2 trillion dollar Obama deficits? 2 trillion Jefferey. That’s immoral. You are thieves. If you want to argue deficits, Obama is the deficit king.
By the way, when Reagan and Bush cut taxes, it flooded the treasury with revenues. Even progressives know that. When Reagan did it, it doubled the revenues. Deficits went up because they spent too much, not because they cut taxes. That’s why the republicans aren’t in power any more, not because people embrace leftist socialist progressivism. The independents threw the republicans out for robbing them too. You’ll find out in November how true that is.
Links
Blogs
Find Us
Contact