Not too surprisingly, “CBO gives Obama just what he wanted.” What is surprising is that the headline is not from a conservative political publication but from the front page of a mainstream, left-of-center urban daily newspaper, The Arizona Daily Star.
The President ordered up a $950 billion price tag, and a $100 billion, ten-year reduction in the federal deficit. Presto! The CBO pulled the right number of digits out of the hat, a mere $940 billion price tag and a $138 billion deficit decrease—a giant drop in the gargantuan federal red-ink bucket.
The Democrats admittedly just adjusted the numbers as needed. Is the excise tax on union members’ Cadillac health plans too high? Lower that, and tax seniors’ retirement-plan interest and dividends.
There’s no fix for doctors’ fees, scheduled to be dropped 21% in April unless Congress does something. The CBO said that rolling back that pay cut would cost $208 billion over 10 years. If added back to the health care overhaul bill, it would wipe out all the deficit reduction, leaving the legislation $59 billion in the red.
This did not, by the way, stop AMA president James Rohack, M.D., from sending a message of support on March 19.
Another problem, which might even cause liberals like Oregon’s Peter DeFazio to vote no, is that hospitals in his district will get paid less than others. Changing that, of course, could only increase the deficit, and so can’t, according to the rules, be included in a budget reconciliation measure.
It reminds one of that balloon that proponents of ClintonCare talked about. Squeeze it one place, and it bulges somewhere else. Or to expand an area you have to squeeze another one. Add any more air and it pops the $1 trillion limit.
If enough Congressmen look at the squeezes on medical facilities or taxpayers in their districts, Pelosi’s fragile consensus has to disintegrate.
