Morning Bell: Repeal Doesn’t Increase the Deficit
When now-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D–CA) was sworn in as Speaker on January 4, 2007, the national debt stood at $8.67 trillion. By the time Pelosi surrendered the gavel to Speaker John Boehner (R–OH) yesterday, the national debt stood at $14.01 trillion. At $5.34 trillion, that means Speaker Pelosi added more than $1 trillion in debt per year during her tenure as Speaker. And yet she has the audacity to tell reporters Tuesday: “Deficit reduction has been a high priority for us. It is our mantra, pay-as-you-go.”
Only someone so out of touch with reality that they could claim that “deficit reduction” has been their “highest priority” while simultaneously adding more than $1 trillion a year to the debt could possibly claim that repealing Obamacare would add to the debt. But that is exactly what Pelosi wants us to believe. Also on Tuesday she claimed that repealing Obamacare would do “very serious violence to the national debt and deficit.” Nothing could be further from the truth.
While the CBO did produce a report projecting that Obamacare could produce $124 billion of savings over its first 10 years, no honest and intelligent person believes that that score will ever become reality. Not even the CBO. CBO Director Doug Elmendorf wrote: “CBO’s cost estimate noted that the legislation maintains and puts into effect a number of policies that might be difficult to sustain over a long period of time.” Elmendorf then goes on to identify a number of specific Obamacare policies, such as arbitrary reductions in the growth rate for Medicare spending, that anyone who follows health care policy knows will be impossible to actually implement.
1 comment:
sez Mary: "no honest and intelligent person believes that that score will ever become reality....Elmendorf then goes on to identify a number of specific Obamacare policies, such as arbitrary reductions in the growth rate for Medicare spending, that anyone who follows health care policy knows will be impossible to actually implement."
False. While many factors will alter the actual impact of the health care bill it is totally false to assert that no one believes the CBO estimate is the best measurement analysis available. The GOP uses CBO data when it is convenient to their message and refutes the data when they disagree with the cause. While the deficit rose during Rep. Pelosi's tenure, largely dealing with the mess that GOP left behind after 8-yrs of neglect, at least the investments helped make a difference and avoid further suffering and economic catastrophe (i.e., no Great Depression #2). We'll see over time if we can say the same about the new $1+ trillion of debt the GOP has added to our national debt since the Nov. election.
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