Update: Medicare/Medicaid report delivered after health care vote
Sorry, I did not catch the full update from Bret Baier just now, but Fox News did contact someone at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services who said the report was not released until April 21, after the health care legislation passed and was signed by the president.
This post serves to update my previous post today, much of which has solid information so you should read it.
So it seems Secretary Kathleen Sebelius did not hold back the report. Fine. Then why did Congress and the president move forward so fast to shove the legislation through while bypassing or changing many House and Senate rules along the way? Should they have waited for the actuarial team at Medicare and Medicaid to score the legislation and provide a detailed analysis prior to voting on the legislation?
Typical congress-critter
Oh, that’s right. We had to pass the bill to see what’s in it… and how much it costs… and how many people won’t be covered…
Meanwhile today, the congress-critters came to the realization the big companies who wrote off billions of dollars in profit right after the health care legislation was signed into law were not – as the liberal left were complaining – trying to stir up the pot. As it turns out, Sarbanes-Oxley (federal regulations) required they let shareholders know what was going on. From Morrissey at Hot Air.
Democrats knew full well that they had ended the tax credit for the subsidy that keeps retirees on private, employer-based prescription coverage. They did that deliberately in order to gain $5.4 billion in revenue to close the gap for the CBO analysis of ObamaCare. That money comes right off of the balance sheets of private industry — in fact, Democrats counted on it.
Now the private sector has $3.4 billion less to invest in new jobs and expansion (with more writedowns coming), plus Democrats have incentivized these companies to dump their retirees into the overextended Medicare Part D program. Small wonder Waxman’s colleagues convinced him to call off the hearing.
So much for Waxman’s show trial demands.
As Sister Toldjah reminds us … never let a good crisis go to waste.
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I just can't decide which is worse: the rank incompetence of our "representatives", or their corruption. Or maybe the way the two are intertwined to create the greatest impediment to progress the world has seen since the Dark Ages and the Inquisition. The Republicans are no angels, but the Democrat party has recently dragged the reputation and effectiveness of the federal (and state, if CA, MA, NY and CT are any indication) down below the gutter and right into the sewer.
Of course, the apathy or ignorance of the public, most of which is deliberate, being the result of a manipulative media and educational (to use the term loosely) system that keep the people uneducated and uniformed, give tacit approval to the practices of said pols…
Unfortunately, this has nothing to do with the timing of the report. It has to do with the mad rush to socialism. It has to do with creating a crisis and replacing existing legislation with new. For example, illegal immigration. With plenty of existing, unenforced, legislation, congress will take time out to push new immigration !?!? And in this case, they will add insult to injury by stomping on states rights as well.