The Real Arithmetic of Health Care Reform: Obama’s Fantasy Land

By DOUGLAS HOLTZ-EAKIN

New York Times

Arlington, Va.

As mentioned in the string below in bold, Administration Actuary Can’t Analyze Health Care Bill Before Final Vote, is this surprising?  Does it make any difference?  Few who will be voting have read the bill, including Nancy Pelosi. Most of the bill was written in closed meetings behind closed doors. Republican proposals, for the most part were not considered.

The joke on us and the joke on them is the entire charade has never been about health care. It’s been about creating a legacy for a narcissistic, socialist/Marxist egomaniac. Is it inconceivable that the radicals in congress could spend the money that is taxed in advanced on other social programs? They did it with Social Security.

Should the bill pass it will ultimately be defeated, in the courts, or by the states as they preclude this cruel hoax from being forced upon their citizens.  Ultimately it will fall on it’s own weight. Physicians won’t participate, they will retire, job losses will begin immediately, see story on Caterpillar Corp. (cost first year and extra $100 million)

The Health Care Scam would more appropriately be called The Attorney’s Bonanza.  Random thoughts while getting ready to watch the greatest show on earth on T.V. , J.C.

ON Thursday, the Congressional Budget Office reported that, if enacted, the latest health care reform legislation would, over the next 10 years, cost about $950 billion, but because it would raise some revenues and lower some costs, it would also lower federal deficits by $138 billion. In other words, a bill that would set up two new entitlement spending programs — health insurance subsidies and long-term health care benefits — would actually improve the nation’s bottom line.

Could this really be true? How can the budget office give a green light to a bill that commits the federal government to spending nearly $1 trillion more over the next 10 years?

The answer, unfortunately, is that the budget office is required to take written legislation at face value and not second-guess the plausibility of what it is handed. So fantasy in, fantasy out.

Administration Actuary Can’t Analyze Health Bill Before Final Vote

In reality, if you strip out all the gimmicks and budgetary games and rework the calculus, a wholly different picture emerges: The health care reform legislation would raise, not lower, federal deficits, by $562 billion.

Gimmick No. 1 is the way the bill front-loads revenues and backloads spending. That is, the taxes and fees it calls for are set to begin immediately, but its new subsidies would be deferred so that the first 10 years of revenue would be used to pay for only 6 years of spending.

Even worse, some costs are left out entirely. To operate the new programs over the first 10 years, future Congresses would need to vote for $114 billion in additional annual spending. But this so-called discretionary spending is excluded from the Congressional Budget Office’s tabulation. Complete Story: