More on the incomplete CBO numbers: It's a Republican bait-and-switch
Posted on June 16th, 2009 by Jason Rosenbaum in Congress Watch
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Via Sam Stein at the Huffington Post:
"CBO makes it clear — the Democrats' plan will force millions of Americans to lose the care they have now," Sen. Mike Enzi, the ranking Republican on the Senate HELP Committee, said in a statement. "Anyone who says that if you like the care you have, you can keep it under this bill doesn't have their facts straight."
House Minority Leader John Boehner sent out an email alert on the report, saying the Democrats "costly plan is exposed." His colleague, Minority Whip Eric Cantor, meanwhile said the CBO score card was "troubling when we're trying to save money that we would be calling for that kind of expenditure."
The CBO's findings, however, are for an incomplete piece of legislation, making the cost-per-coverage estimates much worse than they will ultimately be. Republicans on the committee knew this, according to Democrats. But they pushed for the bill to be studied by the CBO now. And when poor results came back, they ran with them.
"The reality is there are still some outstanding issues, including employer responsibility and a public insurance option," said a Democratic aide to a committee member. "Those are two outstanding issues. So what we did in a good faith effort to find bipartisan consensus, we did not include those elements because we are trying to find common ground. But Republicans wanted there to be a score even though, the reality is, if there is an incomplete bill you will have an incomplete statement."
Another Democratic aide to the HELP Committee member concurred, adding that Sen. Ted Kennedy's office, in an effort to "find bipartisan consensus with Republicans colleagues" filed the bill and allowed it to be scored by the CBO — not expecting it to be used as partisan fodder.
This was a setup, plain and simple.
Now, Republicans have a history of dismissing CBO reports when it suits them, so this is hypocrisy, too. John McCain's economic advisor, Dougals Holtz-Eakin, said 10 year CBO numbers are "not a good use of projection" and you'd be on "dangerous ground" to use them as such (see Investor’s Business Daily, 5/29/03). Bush dismissed 10 year CBO estimates as "notoriously innacurate." And Congressional Republicans didn't even show up to the hearing on the CBO's projected cost of the Iraq war.
However, there's still a big question to be asked here. If the HELP committee feels betrayed here (and honestly, couldn't they see this coming?), will they release a bill into committee with all the things they've failed so far to find "bipartisan" consensus on, like shared responsibility and a strong public health insurance option? I hope so. As Howard Dean says, we should do what's right for the American people, not what's right politically for the Senate.
So why is there such a rush? Legislation is being ram rodded through Congress just to meet a deadline. Why the deadline? If it is so important, then it is the obligation of our Congressional leaders to get it right. Once this is put into motion there will be no turning back. If medicade and medicare are in such a state, what's to convince me that this plan will be any better? Companies will dump their coverage once the government steps in. If companies were required to offer health coverage, then there would be no need for the government to take this on. The bottom line is, the government is not responsible for providing health coverage. Nor is it the responsibility of the American tax payers to foot the bill for those who can't or WON'T. There is no doubt that we have the best Medical Care in the world. There is also no doubt that the cost is expensive. If we want to make the system better, find better ways to provide the insurance not the medical care. Streamline the paperwork. 25% of current cost is due to administrative processing. Every insurance company should be using the same form and it should be no more than a page long. Medical records should be electronic with access only granted to medical professionals and the individual. The federal government was created to take on medical care. Take our education system. You would think that in a country this great, we would have the best educational system in the world. We should, but the sad truth is we don't. Medical coverage brought to you by the federal government will be no better. Those in power will make it sound like it's the only choice or the best choice but it's not. If legislation is passed in this manner, we will all suffer greater pains than government medical coverage will be able to fix.
I am a little disappointed. Rather than address the numbers, you shoot the messenger (the CBO). When HCAN launched this blog, I expected a smart retort to health care reform opponents. Instead, you give us "this was a setup, plain and simple"??? C'mon now!
I'm not blaming the CBO, I'm blaming Republicans.