CBO Accounting Scandal Means Health Care Bill Is A Flat-Out Raid On Medicare

So says Reuters’ Jim Pethokoukis, via Twitter, referencing the CBO memo I posted earlier indicating that deficit reduction due to Medicare cuts had been double-counted.
“You can’t spend the same dollars twice,” as Ed Morrissey put it.
And “scandal” is absolutely the right word for this. Not just because, as Phil Klein points out, this revelation is coming from the CBO after the Senate reached its magic number of 60 votes on the bill, but because if these politicians actually carry through with this bill they’re going to be slashing hundreds of billions from an already bankrupt entitlement program that millions of Americans are dependent upon (through no choice of their own, in most cases).
Or, if these politicians really have no intention of making these cuts, they’re committing to even more huge deficits at a time when our largest international creditor is talking about how the world may not have enough money to keep buying up our treasuries.
“Scandal,” in fact, may be too milquetoast for this. “Fraud.” “Criminal.” “Betrayal.”
These are perhaps even better words.