Congress asks CBO if $500 billion in health care savings could equal $1 trillion – fuzzy math

Of course you all remember the 640,329 jobs “created or saved” by the Stimulus Bill passed by Congress last February. I sincerely hope you are still not bogged down with trying to figure out how many of those jobs were created or saved in non-existent congressional districts.

Now we have another mathematical question courtesy of the proposed Obamacare health care legislation.

I’ll begin with a simple example. Let’s assume that you would really like that $5,000 home entertainment system you saw at your local big box store. But, you decide you will live with what you have, and figure you have just saved $5,000 by not buying it.

Thinking further, you decide that since you have just saved $5,000, you can finally afford to spend $5,000 on brand new kitchen appliances. Then, at the end of the day, you proclaim yourself to be “deficit neutral”, because after all, you just “saved” enough money to offset the cost of those appliances!

Of course, you’re counting the same $5,000 twice, but, what the hey. Yet, this is exactly what President Obama and Congress are trying to do.

Here is how their charade works. They claim Obamacare will cut $500 billion out of Medicare. That will extend the “life” of Medicare, according to Obama, by 10 years until 2027. But, at the same time, Obama and Congress propose that the $500 billion in Medicare cuts will be used to cover the cost of insuring the uninsured.

But, here is the worst part…assuming it could get any worse. Congress actually asked the Congressional Budget Office if it could count the same $500 billion twice, once to extend the life of Medicare and yet again, to pay for the cost of insuring the uninsured!  To that question, the CBO said,

CBO has been asked whether the reductions in projected Part A outlays and increases in projected HI revenues under the legislation can provide additional resources to pay future Medicare benefits while simultaneously providing resources to pay for new programs outside of Medicare. Our answer is basically no. [emphasis supplied]

So, when your local political hack says that not only will the cuts to Medicare not harm anyone on Medicare, but those cuts will also extend the life of Medicare by a decade and pay to cover the uninsured, tell them, “if you are that stupid, you needn’t count on my vote in 2010, or, for that matter, in 2012, and, not only that, I will do everything within my power to elect your opponent”.

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SoundOffSister

The Sound Off Sister was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and special trial attorney for the Department of Justice, Criminal Division; a partner in the Florida law firm of Shutts & Bowen, and an adjunct professor at the University of Miami, School of Law. The Sound Off Sister offers frequent commentary concerning legislation making its way through Congress, including the health reform legislation passed in early 2010.

2 Comments

  1. Dimsdale on January 4, 2010 at 8:42 pm

    It is the old shell game, but there are so many shells (with nothing under them) that everyone's mind is spinning, which is probably the idea.

     

    Socialist prestidigitation.



  2. Dimsdale on January 5, 2010 at 6:11 am

    Or maybe the "new math" is finally rearing its ugly head!  All answers are good so long as we have our self esteem!!  Yay!



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