Won’t That Drive Up CBO’s Scoring?
According to this Politico article, Democrats are pushing that more of the ‘benefits’ of their health care system be delivered in 2010, assuming that it passes by then. The reason why the Senate Finance Committee legislation passed CBO muster is because it counted 10 years of tax increases but only delivered 5 years of coverage.
Couple that with the fact that the Doctor Bribe will have to be included in the Senate’s legislation at a cost of $247,000,000,000 and you’ve got legislation with massive deficits easily in the hundreds of billions dollars range. That’s before counting the actual cost of the bill. Right now, the Senate Finance bill is the cheapest at ‘only’ $829,000,000,000 before the Doctor Bribe.
Democrats are pushing Senate leaders and the White House to speed up key benefits in the health reform bill to 2010, eager to give the party something to show taxpayers for their $900 billion investment in an election year.
The most significant changes to the health care system wouldn’t kick in until 2013, two election cycles away. With Republicans expected to make next year a referendum on health care reform, Democrats are quietly lobbying to push up the effective dates on popular programs, so they’ll have something to run on in the congressional midterm elections
I wrote here that the CBO’s scoring is vital to final passage. If CBO says health care reform is both expensive and adds new deficits to the projected budget deficits, Democrats like Lincoln, Pryor, Bayh, Landrieu, Lieberman and Ben Nelson will vote against it in the interest of self-preservation.
Texas Sen. John Cornyn, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said the strategy was a transparent attempt to paper over the less palatable aspects of the bill. There are billions in new taxes on insurers, device manufacturers, and pharmaceutical companies that come due in 2010.
This is fixing to be a Democrat’s worst nightmare. People are tired of hearing about the next spending thing that adds hundreds of billions of dollars to the deficit. They’re exhausted to hear about another round of tax hikes that will hurt the middle class and small businesses. The simple fact is that they’re skeptical that government can run something as complex as health care efficiently.
This afternoon, Harry Reid announced that the Senate bill will have a public option, then admitted that they don’t have the votes for invoking cloture. That’s likely because he can’t get people like Mary Landrieu, Evan Bayh and Ben Nelson to sign off on the public option.
Reid, Sen. Schumer and Pelosi are sounding confident but I suspect that they’re acting confident rather than being confident in the hopes that they win over a wobbly or two. It’s all about exuding an air of inevatibility. It isn’t about true confidence.
Technorati Tags: Harry Reid, Speaker Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Public Option, Opt-Out, Tax Increases, Mandates, Olympia Snowe, Evan Bayh, Mary Landrieu, Ben Nelson, Democrats, CBO, Deficits
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog
October 26th, 2009 at 8:08 pm
I dunno, Gary. Arrogance has a way of making any outcome seem like what one pictures in one’s own, drunken-stupor mind. They very well could be arrogant enough to really believe it.
If they do, my guess is they’ve been holding onto some really delicious skeletons in a few donkey closets. It’s their way, you know.
October 27th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
Carlos I agree, Reid may be dumber than a box of rocks, but he’s still shrewd enough to know where his votes are. He’s willing to risk Snow’s vote if he can pick up 2 or 3 bluedogs.
Same goes for Pelosi by a factor of 3. She is smart, and cunning enough to throw 10 or 20 under the bus if she has to to get what she wants, and not give a damn about it. They are just cannon fodder to her. What does she have to loose? Her seat is safe, and if she pulls this off, she’s got Obama’s name tattooed you know where.
October 27th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Where, USN, on the cigar like Billy Bub’s girl? Or maybe on her lips?
I do know where Duh-1 wants to put a tattoo on every taxpayer, though.
October 27th, 2009 at 9:38 pm
Try her 6 O’clock and down about 3 feet.
October 30th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
With Pelousy? Even pigs like Duh-1 have SOME standards!
October 30th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
They can sound ‘confident’, but it’s just window dressing. I think the Tea Party people are going to need to come out again & have their ‘Can you hear me Now” signs in DC.
For me, I’m ready for a third party cause what we have now are basically them same….big govt. more taxes & no representation of the people.
If you want a political thriller, just out, then read this one cause it’s about a small town in America that stands up to federal tyranny & ends up starting the 2nd American Revolution. At least someone is taking action. It’s insightful to current events that affect you & me. It’s a great read for anyone wanting to know what’s in store for us the nxt 3 yrs.
http://www.booksbyoliver.com