Friday, May 14, 2010

Start Printing That Money

Well--here's a shocker. The fiscally responsible "health care for all" bill is going to cost a few pennies more than the Obama administration told us it would. It seems that the doctored facts the Obamists gave the Congressional Budget Office resulted in a slight early cost overrun. A slight $115 billion to be exact.

Prior to the release of the latest CBO revision, and after people were already recovering from the shock of the health care bill passing in the first place, at least one poll shows that the public opposes the bill by 49% to 43%. Wait 'til they get a load of these figures. The bill that wasn't going to cost us a penny extra in taxes, and would provide Rolls Royce level health insurance at Ford Escort prices is turning out to be a Yugo with the price tag of a Bugatti.

The original estimate, as well as this one, was produced based on what the politicians tell the CBO (and significantly, what they don't tell them). This is the same CBO that underestimated the original cost of Medicare by a factor of nine. I can't wait until Nancy Pelosi and the other Spendocrats actually read the bill that they've passed so we can get even more upgraded estimates. We're already back to the approximately $1.3 trillion that the optimistic Republicans originally estimated, and haven't come close to adding in the costs for those extra little items that nobody has "discovered" yet.

Republicans are predictably pouncing on this first of many announcements that the Obama administration and the Congressional Democrats "fudged" the figures. And equally predictably, the Democrats are denying the facts. The numbers will go up next when the CBO is given the figures for the 38 sections of grants built in to the bill. So far, the CBO has been given the facts about the increased costs for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the IRS. Those alone are going to cost about $20 billion. There are already between $90 billion and $105 billion in authorized but unfunded programs.

The Democrats seem blissfully unaware of the facts and in denial about the costs. An unnamed Democratic leadership aide on Capitol Hill said the Congress will stay within the budget. "Just like other authorized programs, the discretionary programs in health reform will need to compete for funds within set budgetary limits. Republicans fighting to repeal reform can say what they want, but the bottom line is that CBO says reform will reduce the deficit and slow the growth of health care costs--period." I would remind the aide that he is citing the CBO which based that pie-in-the-sky statement purely on lies presented to them by the Democrats. Bad accounting based on false assumptions.

And that is the great and ongoing liberal/progressive Democratic lie. These authorizations will have to "compete" with all the other big-spending bills and entitlements already created by the left. Is this idiot actually suggesting that the Democrats will ever cut a dime from their socialist programs already in place or about to be proposed? And then we are supposed to believe, as the aide says, that "the President has called for a non-security discretionary spending freeze, and he will enforce it with his veto pen."

If you believe that, I've got this big orange bridge I'll sell you. To Obama, "discretionary" means nothing. Every government program of whatever nature and for whatever purpose is absolutely necessary in the mind of the statist president. Federally mandated midnight basketball is going to look like common sense when this fool and his disciples get finished with us. Obama doesn't own a veto pen. His only pen is the one he uses to sign America into oblivion.

16 comments:

Tennessee Jed said...

And, as usual, Hawk, the old school, no longer all that "mainstream" media fell all over themselves trying to downplay and spin it.

Writer X said...

This is the dirty little secret this week. It's barely getting mentioned in the media. I doubt Obama has ever balanced a checkbook, much less a budget. Disgusting.

StanH said...

“Repeal and Replace!”

If we allow the parasites to latch on to Barrycare, we’ll have to have a revolution to get rid of this monstrosity. As far as the cost I believe the CBO forecast about Medicare are closer to reality, off by a factor of nine!

patti said...

"The Democrats seem blissfully unaware of the facts..."

as usual. but, come november, they are in for an awakening.

Anonymous said...

Tennessee: A trillion here, a trillion there, and pretty soon you're talking about serious money. It is a source of constant amazement to me that the MSM and their Congressional masters throw monumental numbers around as if they were pocket change.

Anonymous said...

WriterX: Obama doesn't have to worry about balancing a checkbook. He just spends other people's money. Since he has zero concept of how wealth is created, he also has no concept of how he's destroying it.

Anonymous said...

StanH: I'm afraid you're right. The costs the socialists are hiding are likely many multipliers higher than those which have just been exposed. And there's no way they're going to be able to offset them by cutting back on school lunch programs.

Anonymous said...

Patti: It's our job between now and November to make sure the public isn't equally blissfully unaware. They're not going to hear it from the New York Times or the talking heads on network TV.

AndrewPrice said...

Lawhawk, This is one of those things that I'm of two minds about. Should it bother me that it turned out this, even though we always knew it would? Or should I just accept the fact that the Democrats are liars to the core and that this is exactly what we expected would happen? Hmm.

In either event, this is so dang typical. And I'm betting this is just the beginning of the "cost overruns."

Anonymous said...

Andrew: I had the same feeling. As for the upcoming "cost overruns," allow me to paraphrase the Carpenter's song: "We've only just begun, to give."

AndrewPrice said...

Lawhawk, Nice reference! LOL! Yeah, it's only just begun and it's going to get worse and worse. I wonder if the AP will report any of it?

Anonymous said...

Andrew: AP will only report it once the left has its spin perfected so that a massive overrun becomes a net savings.

Unknown said...

LawHawk. Maybe they should call our illustrious governor and ask him how to handle cost "overruns." They've been lying here even longer than in DC. Even RINO Schwarzenegger has figured out you have to cut costs. So where does he propose to cut? School programs, and medical care for the truly needy. But not a dime cut from the pie-in-the-sky "green programs." Billions for hydrogen powered cars, but not a dime for anything useful or productive.

Anonymous said...

CalFed: Both California and Washington need across the boards cuts on everything. But mostly, they need to cut programs that never should have been approved in the first place. The Governator is an example of someone who has, like Obama, bought into the "green revolution," to which everything else must yield. But at least he's willing to cut something. What will Obama cut?

HamiltonsGhost said...

Lawhawk--At first, I read 38 unfunded grants yet to be included in the shortfall. Then I realized you said 38 SECTIONS. We must be talking about another four or five hundred billion just in those. That is beyond surreal.

Anonymous said...

HamiltonsGhost: Yes, indeedy, it's 38 sections. I imagine now that it's passed, Pelosi and Reid can see what's in it so they can start printing the money to pay for those sections and all the new ones they'll add to it in the future.

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