CBO Hasn’t Scored ObamaCare
[Guest post by DRJ]
The Congressional Budget Office has posted a notice saying it hasn’t scored President Obama’s new health care proposal because it’s different than past proposals and it was just received:
“We had not previously received the proposal, and we have just begun the process of reviewing it—a process that will take some time, given the complexity of the issues involved. Although the proposal reflects many elements that were included in the health care bills passed by the House and the Senate last year, it modifies many of those elements and also includes new ones.”
Obama says it will cost another trillion, but the CBO let the cat out of the bag over two months ago. Instead of working on health care legislation that saves money, the Democrats have been hard at work making sure they can’t let the public see how much this thing really costs.
— DRJ
The important thing is to pass the legislation. The next ten years can be used to add every conceivable exception to the budget-cutting measures and ensure that the total cost will be double or triple whatever the initial estimate is.
We, the American people, employ hundreds of legislators and thousands of staffers to aid those legislators. For some inexplicable reason, they are the sole sector of the public payroll that thinks they actually need to do something to earn their keep, much to the chagrin of their employers.
Hadlowe (f36744) — 2/22/2010 @ 1:59 pmThe CBO scoring is only as good as the ASSumptions that the congresscritters force them to base their analysis on. As someone noted in the prior thread, and many times before, one of the big sleights of hand the Dems are trying to do is take hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to MediCare that will never, but never, happen. The idea that they can insured 31,000,000+ new people, likely some of the least economically insurable folks, at a cost that will be deficit neutral, or even reduce the deficit is laughable on its face.
JD (5375e6) — 2/22/2010 @ 2:01 pmWhat! The CBO isn’t able to score ObamaCare?
AD - RtR/OS! (93f531) — 2/22/2010 @ 2:03 pmWhere are the Unicorn-counters?
Who forgot to hire the Pixie-Dust Spreaders?
Heads will roll!
Not to even get into the 10 years of taxes but only 6-7 years of the “benefits”. Not to mention that Congress’ ability to estimate the costs of healthcare programs is laughable. MediCare’s original estimates were off by a factor of 10. The prescription drug program was significantly underestimated, and BarckyCare will be not different, given the accounting gimmicks they are using to try to claim deficit neutrality.
JD (5375e6) — 2/22/2010 @ 2:04 pmAt the risk of creating a rip in the fabric of space-time, what would happen if the accounting rules of Sarbanes-Oxley and the fraud rules of securities regulation applied equally to government accountants?
Hadlowe (f36744) — 2/22/2010 @ 2:25 pmHadlowe – That is hysterical, and will never happen.
JD (5375e6) — 2/22/2010 @ 2:33 pmHow does the CBO score scott brown’s vote for the jobs bill?
[note: fished from spam filter. –Stashiu]
imdw (c5516c) — 2/22/2010 @ 2:43 pmi’ll score it for them: “solid B+”.
see, that was easy….. and now, on to cap and trade!
redc1c4 (fb8750) — 2/22/2010 @ 2:45 pmScott Brown really bothers dimwit. It is one of its go-to BUNNIES topics.
JD (5375e6) — 2/22/2010 @ 2:52 pmI just popped on here to see what the score was… and what do you know? JD is chasing around the liberals with insulting posts. Must be a day ending in -y.
Intelliology (00d844) — 2/22/2010 @ 3:02 pmI don’t see what JD has to say as an insult to anyone. If you are not bothered by S. Brown, maybe you are not a dimwit. However, intell, I would guess you are, no matter if Brown bothers you or not. JD does.
Zelsdorf Ragshaft III (9685aa) — 2/22/2010 @ 3:08 pmIntelliology – See my comments #2 and 4. How would you respond?
JD (5375e6) — 2/22/2010 @ 3:51 pmWhy exactly did you fish that one out, Stashiu, my friend?
SPQR (26be8b) — 2/22/2010 @ 3:51 pmOr, idiotology, maybe you could explain to all of us how Sen. Brown’s vote on a jobs bill has anything to do with this topic.
JD (5375e6) — 2/22/2010 @ 3:54 pmI think introlliology has a crush on JD.
peedoffamerican (e7b277) — 2/22/2010 @ 3:55 pmAnd who didn’t think it would be vaporware? Just adds a few more “Overton Windows” to the Democrats existing plans.
bill-tb (541ea9) — 2/22/2010 @ 3:58 pmForgot the link “Overton Windows”
bill-tb (541ea9) — 2/22/2010 @ 3:59 pmIntegrity my friend.
Stashiu3 (44da70) — 2/22/2010 @ 4:00 pmYour own wasn’t in doubt, Stashiu3.
SPQR (26be8b) — 2/22/2010 @ 4:07 pmI think he was trying to highlight the lack thereof amongst the likes of imdw and introllology, SPQR.
JD (5375e6) — 2/22/2010 @ 4:08 pmNo worries my friend, I know. I should have added a wink-smiley to that, so I’ll just put a happy-smiley now. 😀
Duty is hard sometimes. 😉
Stashiu3 (44da70) — 2/22/2010 @ 4:13 pmDRJ’s link to that “smoking gun” memo is just further proof of how hard the Democrats are trying to preserve the fiction that their bills do not amount to takeovers of the health insurance industry.
Lying liars and the most ethical Congress EVAH!!!!!
daleyrocks (718861) — 2/22/2010 @ 4:27 pmWonder why the CBO didn’t score the Iraq war.
Comment by imadouchebag
Dmac (799abd) — 2/22/2010 @ 5:30 pmComment by bill-tb — 2/22/2010 @ 3:59 pm
On 11/3, the Leftists will be looking for that window to jump out of.
AD - RtR/OS! (93f531) — 2/22/2010 @ 5:39 pmGotta say, you’re cracking me up with that schtick, Dmac.
Hadlowe (061332) — 2/22/2010 @ 6:03 pmPlus, I’m in a good mood because my Rock Sugar CD arrived in the mail (stupid lack of direct download.) Time to party like it’s 1989.
Hadlowe (061332) — 2/22/2010 @ 6:04 pmFunniest thing is that although it’s meant to be a parody, the actual thing still continues posting unabated, despite the obvious and banal similarities.
Dmac (799abd) — 2/22/2010 @ 6:21 pm[…] Patterico and DRJ have covered the basics, Pat asked me for additional comment. Substantively, I would add that the […]
Patterico's Pontifications » ObamaCare: The White House proposal (e4ab32) — 2/22/2010 @ 6:26 pmAnd note that Obama’s tax proposals have a five trillion dollar aggregate deficit impact when compared to the correct baseline, actual planned tax law, rather than the artificial baseline that the White House used.
SPQR (26be8b) — 2/23/2010 @ 10:00 amAs I noted on the more recent article (I would name the link-heavy author if I remembered it), CBO came out Monday and said they couldn’t score Obama’s plan because it was too weak on specifics.
John Hitchcock (bc8e18) — 2/23/2010 @ 10:06 am