CBO: Health Care Bill Reduces Deficit
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Comprehensive health care reform will cost the federal government $940 billion over a ten-year period, but will increase revenue and cut other costs by a greater amount, leading to a reduction of $130 billion in the federal deficit over the same period, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, a Democratic source tells HuffPost. It will cut the deficit by $1.2 trillion over the next ten years.
The source said it also extends Medicare’s solvency by at least 9 years and reduces the rate of its growth by 1.4 percent, while closing the doughnut hole for seniors, meaning there will no longer be a gap in coverage of medication. The CBO also estimated it would extend coverage to 32 million additional people.
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I can’t wait to see the financial magic tricks the Democrats used to hit these targets. I’m guessing David Copperfield will be jealous.
Republicans will complain about reducing the deficit too quickly or some bullshit soon enough. That’s the real magic, Jay.
We trust the CBO!*–Republicans
(*except when we don’t.)
…and I base this on absolutely nothing.
The original house bill raised the revenue for HCR by taxing rich people, but this senate bill taxes the middle class lucky enough to already have great health care insurance.
Does anyone care about there not being a single poll showing public support for this bill at over, or even near 50%?
This is insane. I don’t care what party is in power. This is some tyrannical shit right here.
Republicans: “We can’t afford this bill!”
CBO & Democrats: “This bill actually reduces the deficit.”
Republicans, fingers in ears: “Na na na na na na we can’t hear you!!! We can’t afford this bill!”
Rinse and repeat.
Will you be providing evidence or do you expect us to take your word for it?
Our local Clear Channel news station had a call-in from Michael Steele this morning. Steele claimed that Democrats are “deliberately jamming up the phone lines” into Congress to thwart the torrent of opposition from reaching the ears of our elected representatives.
Any idea what planet he might have been calling from?
I advise you all to look back at the Medicare budget projections when it was being debated before you celebrate too raucously.
Planet O’Keefe?
But, but, but…
And as we all know, the CBO is infallable. If they’re off by 10% a year on this thing, yikes!!!!
“Well Rush told me it’ll send this country back to the stone age!”
If they’re off by 10% a year on this thing, yikes!!!!
Yikes?
If they’re off by 10 percent a year, that’ll mean an extra $10 billion, or .3% of the federal budget.
Yikes.
So we’re going to go the same way as the global warming conversation, huh?
“Pay no attention to the experts in charge of studying this topic! They might be wrong. In fact, you should assume that they are wrong, even though I have nothing to defend this statement whatsoever, and no verifiable numbers to contradict the CBO.”
Fucking weak, Farris.
That’s $10 billion the right could be bombing brown people with, mister!
And what if Barack HUSSEIN Obama were really an evil robot from the Future sent here from his Alien Kenyan Masters to destroy Capitalism and Democracy (in the most sinister way possible–through the electoral process!). Double–nay Triple–Yikes!
What’s your point? The medicare projection was accurate, you say? Or just admitting that costs are irrelevant to you?
Darn right! Glenbeck said it so it MUST be true!
Say, there was a fellow here the other day who said folks ought to “listen to the guys who work in the business.”
Looked just like you, Farris.
Well now, there’s an idea.
We could borrow an idea from the Postal Service and cut back on weekend bombing. That oughta cover the extra $10 billion, easy.
There’s no point in math when you can put ism at the end of a word
Don’t understand why cons doubt the math- if decreasing tax assessments raise more revenue for the Federal Government, as they say, shouldn’t increased expenditure reduce the deficit? Republican math supports this CBO estimate.
Figure it out, genius.
I’m skeptical of these kinds of projections, but you know what? As far as I’m concerned, they’re beside the point. Government should spend money to help citizens in ways they can’t possibly help themselves. That’s what it’s for.
For those oh-so-fretful about the costs: Tell me how worried you were over the cost of, say, the last few stupid wars we got plunged into. Then we’ll talk.
It must have been painful with that beefy hand of yours to pull all that out of your ass.
This is all irrelevant. We must wait and see what Sarah Palin says.
Actually it’s based on history and knowledge of the history. And guess what? I was right.
First of all, the bill is so back loaded, NBA owners are jealous. $940 billion price tag and yet it only costs $17 billion over the first four years.
In addition, the CBO report is littered with words of caution about these figures and how uncertain they are. Yet the Democrats are yelping as though the CBO is giving us 100% reliable and set-in-stone dollar amounts.
The estimated cost of the so-called “stimulus” bill was projected to be $787 billion. In one year, that cost rose to $862 billion. Does anybody here really think the $940 billion estimate is going to hold up. Seriously?
WOW. Thanks Paul for reminding me why I only come around here every once in awhile. It’s just stunningly insightful and thought provoking comments like yours that keep me away. Who could possibly handle such breadth and intellect like this?
Indeed, why don’t we just have Single Payer, or at the very least a Public Option or expand Medicare? That would save a shitload of even more money. Oh yeah, as Atrios pointed out, Teh Hippies favor that, so we can’t. So I guess we’ll have to settle for marginally better instead of way fucking better. Also, Socialism.
In addition, the CBO report is littered with words of caution about these figures and how uncertain they are.
Is that unusual? I suspect not.
Awesome display of satirical preemptive trollery! Kudos all ’round!
Well if it’s not unusual, people shouldn’t be saying with degrees of certainty that this bill will reduce the deficit, should they? Of course, saying might or might not lower the deficit wouldn’t have the same degree of triumphalism as we’ve seen.
Jackass – that is the current estimate. That is the best approximation of the numbers as they stand right now. You cannot claim with any authority that those numbers will significantly change – and if they change, you do not know which direction they will go. And if you do try to claim that, I would like to know why you have access to information that the CBO apparently does not.
Should we make decisions based on predictions that are less well-informed than the CBO’s? Should we say, “Fuck the experts, I don’t believe them. Kill the bill! We cannot afford it!”
It’s fucking stupid, Jay. And you know it.
Yes yes! Let us wait for a brilliantly penned Facebook post, on how this bill will be the end of Amurica as we know it! OMG!
Yeah. History. Estimates. Outrage.
I remember it all quite clearly when the Republicans pushed through their Medicare prescription drug plan in 2003.
At the time, the Bush administration touted the CBO estimates and then actively suppressed higher cost estimates from Medicare itself.
Then Republicans held open the vote another three hours to twist arms and bribe fellow Republicans to vote yes.
Yes, yes, the hypocrisy, the hypocrisy …
I don’t recall, Jay, what was your position on the CBO estimates then?
When is he ever not?
Well if it’s not unusual, people shouldn’t be saying with degrees of certainty that this bill will reduce the deficit, should they?
Then we could just dispense with the whole CBO scoring process altogether. I mean if the numbers just aren’t reliable…
The point, Jay, is that your breathless rhetoric about “littered with words of caution” is no different from the CBO report on any other bill. (Well, Medicare Part D was different, but we’ll let that go.) Every report has assumptions and caveats and maybe-ifs. The score is still the score.
Don’t ram your arithmeticism down my throat, buddy.
“It’s just stunningly insightful and thought provoking comments like yours that keep me away.”
“insightful and thought provoking” We can’t hope to meet standards that high. Advantage: Jay!
You should look up the definition of “tyranny”, Burt. And you might want to re-check those polls, unless you want to redefine what it means to be “close” to 50% approval.
Finally, I think that the reasons that people dislike this legislation have to be considered. Many people don’t like this legislation because they’re fucking stupid and don’t really understand what’s in the bill, only what they’ve been told is in the bill. The will of these particular people is not informed, and I don’t care if they are ignored.
It’s just stunningly insightful and thought provoking comments like yours that keep me away.
I’ll have to give you that one, Jay. Paul’s comment doesn’t hold a candle to the wit and gravitas on display at your old site. I mean nothing shows insight and thought provokiness like someone writing “Blow me.”
No Mambo, what I’d like to see are people that don’t sit there and lap up whatever they are told (and laughingly pretend to believe it) simply because it’s THEIR guy. It’s obvious that legislation can be worked to a point that manipulates CBO analysis. As I said, it’s no different than useless salary caps that owners and general managers get around by back-loading contracts. They know when that player reaches that point, some other team will grab him up during a rebuilding phase and not care about the high salary. It’s the same here. President Obama will be long gone from office when the bill comes due for this crap.
If the estimated costs of the plan on the table is $940 billion over ten years, I’d say figure winds up being multiplied by a factor of three.
Unless you can show me a government program that actually stayed within their initial estimates.
HAHAHAHAHAHA!! Yeah. Sure.
Oh Fafaroo. You’re still as silly as always.
I didn’t support the President’s prescription drug program, so you’ll have to go and fish for a different red herring.
Wow. And they say an elephant never forgets. I seem to recall that was like 6-7 years ago dude.
Unfortunately (for Democrats), those “fucking stupid” people vote. And most of them really don’t like to be treated like they’re “fucking stupid” by the people they send to Congress to represent them.
Which I have no doubt Democrats will learn come November.
And how many chickens will you have when all the eggs have hatched?
And who know, maybe in November 2012 as well?
What is the sound of one hand clapping?
I didn’t support the President’s prescription drug program, so you’ll have to go and fish for a different red herring.
And I’m sure you were right out there bitching about the CBO numbers.
And as we all know, things that happened more than 14 months ago don’t count.
And as I’ve said before: There is strategy, and there is truth.
The truth is that there are a lot of dumb motherfuckers in this country (hat tip to George Carlin). People don’t actually oppose this bill – they approve, overwhelmingly in many cases, the individual tenets of the bill. However, some people are sheep and will just be led around by their noses by the conservative pants-wetters and the Fox News noise machine. “Obamacare? Aw hell nah, my granny ain’t gonna get euthanized by no Kenyan Arab communist tyrant!” They don’t know what’s really in the bill, they only know that they don’t like it because of jackasses and cynics and partisan hacks that have been railing against the bill for months on end.
Stupid. Fucking. People.
I’m not running for office, so I have the freedom to be able to say it.
P.S. Pre-emptive strike: Jim DeMint. Jim fucking DeMint.
You’re like a trained seal. Only not as intelligent.
The poll you cite has a +/- 4% margin of error (with a 95% confidence interval). I am pretty sure that there is not a statistically significant shift from last week to this week.
But keep on keepin’ on, Dave. Do you want your fish or not?
Yes, yes! The very definition of tyrannical shit, this HCR bizness is. A guy wins a democratic election by a comfortable margin and he goes about pushing for one of the very issues he campaigned on. Fucking Stalin. No wonder Death Panels poll so poorly.
46% is still better than 23%.
SQUIRREL!
Construction of the Smithsonian, I believe, was done under time and under budget. That’s from memory, however.
No Mambo, what I’d like to see are people that don’t sit there and lap up whatever they are told (and laughingly pretend to believe it) simply because it’s THEIR guy.
So we should dismiss everything Obama says just because you’re the party of Sarah Palin HateFest Rallies and Fox News and Glenn Beck and Global Warming Denialists (because that’s a good part of why a lot of us voted for Obama)? Huh?
We’re not sitting here and lapping up whatever Obama says. We’re taking time to learn what’s in the bill and what isn’t (no matter what Rush Limbaugh says). We’re taking the advice of Nobel Prize winning economists instead of batshit crazee Michele Bachman and lunatic Steve King. You know, I bet if you ask any lefty around here, they’d tell you that they’d much prefer a Single Payer System or at least a Public Option or Medicare expansion (guess what, we know what that shit is). We’re not lapping up whatever dickwad right wing asshole spews, like “Hitler” and “Stalin” and “Tyranny” and “Death Panels.” I’m really sorry a guy won a democratic election by a wide margin and then pursued a policy he campaigned on. So sorry.
And I’m sorry that Karl Rove hung the “reality based” tag on us, but, you know, if the shoe fits.
Oh, and Socialism. Also.
If the estimated costs of the plan on the table is $940 billion over ten years, I’d say figure winds up being multiplied by a factor of three.
Oh, I see. We’re supposed to take the nonpartisan CBO estimates and drastically increase them, because this will undoubtedly be more accurate than their unadjusted estimates. And they don’t make this adjustment themselves, for some reason, but we should know better. And also, I am sure that your insistence that the CBO is low-balling the estimate for this bill has nothing to do with the fact that Obama is most definitely not “your guy,” right Jay? Because you’re above that kind of partisan hackery, right Jay?
Yeah. Right.
Did you support the Iraq Invasion? President Cheney’s point man on the cost, Andrew Natsios, claimed on Nightline that the Iraq Invasion and occupation would cost 1.7 billion U.S. dollars max (that’s including tips and extras and everything). Wanna guess how much that awesome decision cost? Where were you? Lots of us were saying it would cost much, much more. And that’s not even including how much we (very correctly, one can’t help but note) in lives of everyone directly involved, U.S. standing in the world, and what have you. How’d that work out anyway?
So please don’t come whining about how you’re just sure the CBO is wrong because you just know it is this time. We’re trying to help people (and in this case, save money too!).
And Socialism.
Sorry if we missed your apology.
You’re right. These reports always contain qualifiers.