CBO: Health repeal would deepen deficit

[TomCADem]

Source: Washington Post

Rescinding the federal law to overhaul the health-care system, the first objective of House Republicans who ascended to power this week, would ratchet up the federal deficit by about $230 billion over the next decade and leave 32 million more Americans uninsured, according to congressional budget analysts.

The rough estimate by the Congressional Budget Office also predicts that most Americans would pay more for private health insurance if the law were repealed. The 10-page forecast was delivered Thursday to House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), installed a day earlier to shepherd the new GOP majority. He immediately dismissed it.

The CBO's assessment, arriving as Republicans have mobilized to make the law's repeal the first major House vote of the new Congress, touches on a sensitive area for the GOP. Republicans are vowing to take tough measures to reduce the deficit, although they already have exempted the health-care measure from rules requiring that any spending increases be accompanied by offsetting reductions so that the net effect on the deficit is null.

The CBO's analysis provided an early glimpse of the brute force politics spreading across Capitol Hill and beyond in the new era of divided government. The broad changes to the health-care system, pushed through Congress by Democrats who controlled both the House and the Senate until this week, are among President Obama's proudest domestic accomplishments - and now a central target of the GOP. On Thursday, congressional Democrats and their allies seized the budget analysts' prediction as ammunition. "It's plain and simple: We can't afford to increase the deficit by nearly a quarter of a trillion dollars, especially with the very first substantive vote of the 112th Congress," said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Montana).


Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/06/AR2011010606501.html

---

Wow, will the media call out the Republicans for breaking their campaign promise to reduce the deficit? Instead, they explode it right out of the box! Also, what happened to the CBO being god during the health care debate. Will the media call them out on their hypocrisy?

[sadbear]

1. Repealing the health insurance law is also a job killer

[savalez]

2. But, but, Boener says the CBO is wrong?

I agree. This is blatant hypocrisy on the Pub's part.

And they are up to the same old scare tactics!!!

Take this excerpt for example:

"House Republicans countered with their own report, containing their portrayal of the financial effects of keeping the law intact. The report, filled with the incendiary language the GOP has adopted to discuss the law, is entitled: "Obama-care: A budget-busting, job-killing health care law" and features on its cover a gate padlocked with a thick chain. "

IMO you've got to be real stupid to fall for this stuff.

[Igel]

3. The CBO wasn't "god" during the health care debate.

At least not to most on the right.

In fact, they had some fairly substantive disagreements with the CBO. What they didn't do was produce their own scoring of the HCRA; then again, one doesn't have to make a prediction to say fairly reliably that a different prediction is false. I know that it won't rain atol on 2/16/2011 in Houston but that doesn't mean I'm willing to make a prediction as to the weather.

Many of those on the left considered the CBO's scoring to be divine writ, largely, I suspect, because it was a useful tool to a long-desired goal believed to be in the best interests of "We the People," even if not "those people". That hasn't changed, and won't on this matter unless the CBO revises its scoring to show that the repubs' legislation would be a good thing.

[TomCADem]

4. Deja Vu - "GOP that once loved CBO now says it's wrong on health care"

Once again Republicans Were For The CBO, Before They Were Against It...

http://www.examiner.com/populist-in-national/gop-that-once-loved-cbo-now-says-it-s-wrong-on-health-care

McConnell Described CBO as "Independent," Praised Their Assessments. In press releases of his floor statements, Senator McConnell praised CBO's assessments of health care and repeatedly described them as "independent." On July 21, McConnell said, "Despite repeated assurances from the administration to the contrary, the independent Congressional Budget Office says that just one section of one of the Democrat proposals we've seen would force 10 million people off their current health plans." On July 22, McConnell said, "According to the independent Congressional Budget Office, the Democrat proposals would very likely increase overall health care spending, not reduce it. There goes that argument."

McConnell Used CBO to Further His Health Care Claims. In an interview on Fox News Channel’s "Your World with Neil Cavuto," Senator McConnell discussed Medicare and said, "The director of CBO, as you just indicated, has underscored what they are doing. And it's astonishing." <"Your World with Neil Cavuto," FOX News, 9/24/09>

* * *
Cantor Called CBO Score a "Turning Point." In a press conference, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor said, "In following up on the Leader's statements about Republican efforts to try and make sure we accomplish health care reform, I think the news yesterday from the CBO is the turning point in the heath care debate so that we will be able to put some reason back into the discussion here and be able to produce for the middle class families in this country." Conference, 6/16/09.