Obama Will Have To Break His Deficit Promise To Sign Obamacare Into Law
Remember when Obama made this promise: “I’ve pledged that I will not sign health insurance reform — as badly as I think it’s necessary, I won’t sign it if that reform adds even one dime to our deficit.”
Well, according to surprising revelations by the CBO yesterday the health care bill absolutely will a lot of dimes to our budget deficit and national debt. About $170 billion worth of dimes:
Does the Senate’s health care reform bill add to or subtract from the deficit? Democrats have repeatedly touted a Congressional Budget Office score that suggests it will decrease the deficit by spending less than the amount by which it raises taxes and cuts Medicare.
The only problem, as the Congressional Budget Office has admitted today, is that this isn’t how the budget is counted in real life. Medicare is funded from a separate trust fund, and savings from the trust fund do not go into the general budget that will fund ObamaCare.
In other words, if you don’t count the same savings twice, then Obamacare actually creates a $170 billion budget hole instead of a $130 billion budget surplus.
To be honest with you, given this revelation, the Senate should have another vote on the bill. Because I don’t see how self-styled deficit hawks like Senator Kent Conrad (just to name one) can vote for a bill that does this to our deficits.
Tags: Asshats, Domestic Issues, Politics
