Talking heads ignore Friday's late night CBO score on the House bill
All the Sunday shows and anti-health care reform members of Congress have jumped on Doug Elmendorf's testimony, but ignored another CBO report. I wonder why?
Not that it matters, since the showboating Senators had to have a dramatic hearing with the CBO chief before the committees were finished and the resultant headlines have been disseminated as if they came down from Mt Sinai, but this was released last night by the From the House Energy, Ways and Means and Education and Labor committees:
For Immediate Release:
July 17, 2009
CBO Scores Confirms Deficit Neutrality of Health Reform Bill
Washington, D.C. -- The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released estimates this evening confirming for the first time that H.R. 3200, America’s Affordable Health Choices Act, is deficit neutral over the 10-year budget window – and even produces a $6 billion surplus. CBO estimated more than $550 billion in gross Medicare and Medicaid savings. More importantly, the bill includes a comprehensive array of delivery reforms to set the stage for lowering the future growth in health care costs.
Net Medicare and Medicaid savings of $465 billion, coupled with the $583 billion revenue package reported today by the House Committee on Ways and Means, fully finance the previously estimated $1.042 trillion cost of reform, which will provide affordable health care coverage for 97% of Americans.
"This fulfills the strong commitment of the President and House leadership to enact health reform on a deficit-neutral basis," said Chairman Henry A. Waxman, Chairman Charles B. Rangel, and Chairman George Miller. "The reforms included in this legislation will help control health care costs and expand access to quality, affordable coverage to all Americans in a fiscally-responsible manner."
The estimates also cover important reinvestments in Medicare and Medicaid, including phasing in the closing of the "donut" hole in the Medicare drug benefit. The bill’s long-term reform of Medicare’s physician fee schedule to eliminate the potential 21 percent cut in fees, and put payments on a sustainable basis for the future, will cost about $245 billion. Those costs, however, are not included in the net calculations above, as they will be absorbed under the upcoming statutory "pay go" legislation that is pending in the House.
Naturally, the inviolate Chuck Todd 30,000 feet rule of reporting is in effect and the Politico headlines reads this way: CBO deals another blow to House health plan...read on
And Jonathan Cohn makes a great point that I hope Congress reads:
One last point: Do remember that even if reform ends up without game-changing cost control, it may create political conditions that make future cost control more likely. That seems to be happening in Massachusetts, which enacted sweeping coverage expansions a few years ago. Remember, too, even if reform did nothing but guarantee everybody access to care, without bending the curve, it'd still be a pretty big accomplishment.
We're trying to have real change here and all the press and republicans are doing is whipping up the money-fear thingy. But spending billions on two disgraceful wars is just OK. Forget about the balancing act---if it costs a little more, then go for it--full throttle.
"Ooooooooh...facts...no no no...they make my head hurt!"
Oh, and since there no longer is any serious political discussion in this country...FRIIIIIIIIIIIIIST!
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
... whine 'you're not doing it right!'
Okay. What did you do over eight years with a Republican president and Republican majority in Congress?
::: crickets :::
catch phrase of the day--"risky experimentation". Expect it to be in wide circulation in 3, 2,....
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
"risky experimentation" Isn't that the GOP abstinence only program? Or was it Palin's?
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
Frank Luntz was away for the week-end, so nobody knows what to say because they have not received their spin memos. No worries though, I am sure Luntz is all over it.
;o}
I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America, and to the republic which it established, one nation from many peoples, promising liberty and justice for all
with SEVERE Arthritis in both hands.
These Repubs would be speechless!
One could only wish.
Robert Reich here
emphasis added
Who will you believe?
And precisely what do the 'savings' from Medicare and Medicaid mean, denial of service? Platitudes abound.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
maybe one of the groups that sends us
emails to submit a response to our
representatives in both houses will
make an email that we can all sent to
these repreps and send the entire
post that this blog just put out of
the CBO'S showing that the proposed
public health care plan is in fact-
***DEFICIT NEUTRAL***
if they are ignoring it or not getting
it, then there will be no excuse when
they get thousands of copies of this
CBO report.
with the Iraq War when it started as GE would get a "nice kick" in profits from the defense spending.
The U.S. Government’s total downstream liabilities and unfunded commitments including Medicare, Social Security, Public Debt, Pensions, etc, have exceeded $53 trillion dollars and where's this "fresh obligation free money" going to come from?
All could be wiped away in two minutes.
Remove the Social Security cap. Period.
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
That's the problem
Debt is not evil. So long as you have a financial plan.
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
I've decided to stop paying attention to anything they say. All of it is total spin and all of it translates into: We want the president to fail. That's the bottom line with them, plain and simple.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
with some liberal bloggers.
I'm sure not one of them.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
You are mistaken there, anyone who wants genuine reform should consider all of the strong indicators that say single payer is the best way.
Including Nancy Pelosi,
here
To point out the inconsistencies and contradictions of the President's proposals and the Congresses actions and inactions is NOT to want the them to fail
IT IS TO WANT THEM TO IMPROVE at the behest of the widest swath of citizens.
That is the primary difference between a social agenda and a private agenda.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
but this;
is just one example of many of bloggers wanting him to fail
... I gather.
Saying 'that's nice' and then changing the subject is not a careful or considered dialogue.
The topic was health insurance reform, too often conflated with the term 'health care reform', they are not the same.
I stand by my statement.
As far as the 'Energy' Bill, the house bill is worse than doing nothing. Any Senate version would be worse yet.
Cap and trade is a program that guarantees continued fossil fuel use investing heavily in a technology (carbon dioxide capture) that promotes a dangerous and uncertain future condition. It guarantees continued carbon dioxide output and actually moves BACKWARDS as far as EPA oversight. It invests a great amount to continue doing what, in the interest of the ecology what we cannot continue to do.
In my view, on balance, it is worse than doing nothing.
If I felt such were the case with the health insurance bill I would say the same thing.
As for card check, the Senate has dropped the core principle of the bill, which is the workers, by signing the organization card can choose to hold an election or not. Of course now it is the employer which choses. During the ninety day NLRB ramp up the employer fires the union organizers and intimidates anyone else.
Giving the workers the choice of holding an election was THE purpose of the bill. Without it, the bill is a hollow reform. Read more here.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
the House bill is worse than doing nothing, then they are just as dangerous as Republicans.
You don't respond to any individual point. That is not a dialogue.
My position is that a carbon tax is the way to go.
The Republicans would hate that, including the Republicans masquerading as Democrats, of which there too many.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
so I'm glad they stripped it from the bill...the bill still has binding arbitration, which was my only reason for supporting it in the first place.
Mandatory arbitration might be fine but I doubt it. Pam Martin at Counterpunch discusses arbitration as it currently exists, here.
That not withstanding, what does it mean if there is no union, nothing. No card check, probably no union.
No card check is the pro business, anti labor position. You indicate that is your position. °
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Not a good idea. Especially if binding arbitration is used. No appeal allowed. A very bad idea.
Regarding the card check provision, corporations, like all entities that have power, will never give it up. It must be taken from them. Survival 101. On the health reform issue, you are so right. How can anyone, with a straight face, stand behind such an unknown quantity? Does anyone know anything specific about health reform? Other than the insurance companies and Big Pharma will benefit and real people will be screwed again and further?
the gravy train and go with the program. They only want him to fail if he threatens their "extra curricular income" to put my spin on it.
Congress must show its true colors :
a) Ban antibiotics ( at least 7 types) from healthy chicken,pig and cattle, and to really show they care for the people , work to ban commercial cheap steroids and hormone mixes that push growth and are included in most feeds, a known cancer and huge stomach problem producer.
b) Pass a big Tax on sugar sodas and keep those "sugar and junk foods snacks " window trucks away from schools and the kids, they are waiting for the kids to get out of schools every day and take the kids money and health, like vampires.
ALTHOUGH IF WE DON'T GET SICK, THEY CAN'T SELL US THE MEDICINES , RIGHT?
c) Ban ads for medications, the TV networks use the Taxpayers airwaves for free and yet they push ads for Pharmaceutical products like freaks screaming on an idiot's show , which is what sends medicine costs through the roof, it's the ads , the agencies, the reps, the talent , the lawyers , the TV executives and the TV LIES.
d) CBO's Elmendorf comes from the Brookings think tank, the same spin center that insisted that the Iraq War was going to be a " walk in the park" paid by Iraqi oil ,that biological bombs were going to rain on America if we didn't invade Iraq, that America's Foreign Oil and Gas dependency is a natural thing,they were the biggest pushers for financial de-regulation : "...Let the markets a free hand... Free Markets know best... " , and on and on, a list of disasters that has cost taxpayers and consumers trillions of dollars , so why they even get to spin any more ?
and who the Brookings Institute works for ? who gives them the money ? who is behind their spin ?
e) The fact is that Japan and Canada are good places to check for health solutions, but since c-span and npr are run by neocons working for the Pharma-Insurance-HMO lobby, we never even get to compare...nothing but spin....so when are we going to : 1) take the neocon lobby out of c-span , 2 ) audit the Federal Reserve and end the sweet deals between some neocons inside the Fed and some Banks-Hedge Funds , some Pharma and some Insurance executives? when ?
and never mind the FCC and rural broadband , it will never happen, with the new executive team, they will pass all the contracts to Barry Diller,Rupert Murdoch,the Roberts of Comcast, Qualcomm,Haim Saban ,Slim Helu , Sam Zell and some of their associates in the Hedge-Fund world, a really nice deal, but about broadband for health care and national video-conference to cut costs : never ! , and about breaking the monopoly that Flash has over video on the Internet by giving consumers a choice with HTML 5 , JavaScript and Ajax : never ! it's another lie ...
http://www.w3.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JavaScript
http://www.theora.org/
http://www.xiph.org/
And they will use all these "fabricated" failures to show in 2010 that the Obama -Biden agenda is a disaster and to get votes, and all done from the inside , isn't wonderful?
f ) when we read in the New York Times , July 19, 2009, that banks that got billions in taxpayers bail-out money get to have the chief of staff of the White House, general Emanuel, to visit their Board Meetings in D.C., probably to secure "after W.H." multi-million dollar jobs,and make sure bankers know what to do to "be nice", isn't any wonder there is no money for Health Care but it took only 24 hours to spend 700 billion dollars in TARP for the Banks and Financial Institutions that created and benefited from the 2008 Financial Mess ? and they will blame Obama -Biden for having their staff visiting D.C. Banks Meetings while small businesses cannot get loans and Wind and Solar Energy Projects are stuck without finance, no money for anyone, but the chief of staff of the W.H. gets to secure his future "golden-job" in private industry ... wonderful , eh ?
America cannot get out of the 2008 Financial Disaster while its workers can only choose between "Kantucka Fried Plastic Chicken" and "Popoyo greasy spoon on polymer left-over feed " and all loaded with junk, with cheap cooking oils , with colorants and sugar, workers with sick stomachs cannot create solutions, America needs a revolution in foods, fast and slow, we need a total change.
Today America needs new advanced battery and hybrid-electric-plug-in motor factories , new solar and wind energy farms, new and up-graded electric grids, America's homes and buildings are waiting for solar panels, wind turbines and geothermal pumps where possible, and millions of workers can't wait to get some good training and a jump-start , and the time is right now !
The food and the fuel for transportation is what will break or make America, we cannot be what we want to be when workers must spend 10,20 0r 30 dollars a day on transportation, fuels,insurance, repairs,etc., etc., and workers can only afford junk food and bad stomach medication,
so it's about cheap and easy transportation and good healthy and cheap foods, if we get this right, America can do it, but if we continue with junk foods and expensive fuels, we will go down, but will Washington D.C. stand up to the challenge? do they see it ? do they care ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11_kvTEshco
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
The lives of people without healthcare now are being balanced against the cost of the plan. If the costs are too great, no healthcare reform will occur. Is this what all of the hope and promise of the United States has come to? Empathy is a dirty word and budget neutrality trumps human lives. Spending money for healthcare seems to be better use of federal money than what we spend our tax dollars on now. Most of the people in healthcare work long hours to take care of the sick and injured and usually have invested time and energy in advancing their educations. They are generally good citizens. They will be the ones who will have to continue to work if we were to face a pandemic. We who practice medicine know that there is waste in the system. We will pledge to try to stop the waste if Congress just passes a bill to provide universal healthcare for all. Why are the lives of the children of a senator or congressmen worth more than the lives of a layed off factory worker? The pursuit of happiness that is promised to us requires us to have two lungs that exchange oxygen, a beating heart, a working liver, etc. Nobody should have to die in the streets because some of us put the wealth of the few over the health of the whole.
part: it only means you can pursue it. It does not mean you will ever have any. It does not, in this country, say "Life, liberty, and happiness." We've been mislead for a long time. You really have to parse those sentences.
the government mandate to promote general welfare.
"We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
1wel·fare Listen to the pronunciation of 1welfare
Pronunciation: \ˈwel-ˌfer\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from the phrase wel faren to fare well
Date: 14th century
1: the state of doing well especially in respect to good fortune, happiness, well-being, or prosperity
2 a: aid in the form of money or necessities for those in need
b: an agency or program through which such aid is distributed
Number 2 might be a more modern part of that definition (tho' it might not), but part one defines well-being which I think the founding fathers had in mind.
well–be·ing Listen to the pronunciation of well–being
Pronunciation: \ˈwel-ˈbē-iŋ\
Function: noun
Date: 1582
: the state of being happy, healthy, or prosperous
So health falls into that category that the Constitution refers to that is the governments responsibility to the people.
Chuck Todd just started not too long ago right? He still has time to smarten up and get it right. If he seeks the truth he will become disillusioned, but if he doesn't take this disillusionment personally he will pull through and become a human being again... Good luck Chuck!
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
Chuck seems to be completely full of himself right now. Instead of being a journalist, he seems to feel we should also take his word for it when he changes hats and becomes a commentator. He's another one I don't listen to, just as I stopped listening to anything David Gregory has to say. The agenda is blatantly apparent.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
Todd thinks he's some kind of king maker.
When I listen to him....he is so green and so misinformed...he makes my hair hurt.
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
Seems like this is gonna hurt their scare tactic of how we are all going to hell in a hand basket with this terrible drain on our government purse. (Of course, they were never even concerned when it came to "defending our troops" in a f*cked up war and another totally unnecessary one.)
Good for us. Now we all play nice and get what is best for America. I can hardly wait to see boner and mcDroopy join the cause and stop their incessant whining on the networks.
What's the current line on when the internet gets shut down? The corporations responsible for news aren't reporting anything of importance unless it's a goats breast implants and pussy cat stories. The internet collects data and disperses it. This is not going to be tolerable for too much longer. The fascist way of life demands control of the propaganda. Looks like the only way to have freedom and democracy is to have a socialist control over the important aspects of society. The fascists are scare like hell and are going to act to protect their profits before long.
Currently people are paying high premiums and ever higher deductibles and co-payments. These sums which insurance companies collect, do not all go to pay for medical care. About 30-40% are required for overhead {real estate - including lavish skyscrapers - office space and equipment, office personnel, insurance sales persons, adjusters, advertising - they seem to advertise on every scrap of paper, every bench, billboard and even on sports uniforms. They pay for naming rights to buildings - office supplies, not to mention multiple millions of dollars to executives as salaries, stock options, retirement and bonuses.
Then there are the investors - the greedy people - whose sole purpose in life is to seek to become stinking rich and to arrive there, they insist on no taxes, or forever more and more tax cuts. There are a few exceptions to this, but most see themselves as 'Capitalist Pigs' - they even have a website for this, and their mantra is to keep what they earn in their own pockets, and that they are the only ones who know how to spend it. I am not sure if this includes large payoffs, or hush money for crimes committed (O'Reilly about $10M to Ms. Mackris, Ensign, Pickering, Sanford and more). Not a single mention ever of how to support the country they claim to love so much. Then I would like to know what will happen to the premiums (as high as $18,000/yr) that some reportedly are paying? Do they just get to pocket that also?
If you need funds to pay for essentials, you have a revenue problem
If you need funds to pay for frivolity, you have a spending problem
Wingnuts will now turn against the CBO again.
Comments are closed on this entry