Healthcare "reform" will reduce the deficit! Hooray! Who believes this stuff?

I haven’t written a political blog since the election. At first it was depression that kept me from the keyboard. Then came the shock and outrage. After almost a year I have decided that it is time to again share “Aubrey’s Opinion” with the world.

Why now?

I was searching the friendly World Wide Web for information on the current healthcare “debate”. I was amazed (more upset than amazed) to find that it was VERY difficult to find actual information. Everything is presented to us through a lens…what “they” want us to see. “They” being the media, the current administration, the progressives-take your pick-that are trying to hijack our country.

And I remembered why I started my political blog in the first place.

1. An outlet for me to vent my ideas and frustrations.
2. A way for me to help my friends and relatives (and total strangers that find my blog) know what’s really going on in the world. It’s hard to find the truth, so when I dig it up, I want to share.

So here goes…

If you have been following the healthcare mess, you’ve probably heard about the report released by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) about a week ago. The major news networks joyfully reported that the CBO found that imposing government run healthcare would REDUCE the deficit by $81 billion dollars over 10 years. Hooray!!

Really? Is there anyone in America stupid enough to believe that bunch of hooey?

If you got your information from CNN or NBC, that would be the end of the story. The Baucus bill will save us money and reduce the deficit. Yeah! Let’s pass it now!

Umm…not so fast…

The CBO set the 10 year cost (2010-2019) at $829 billion. The thing is, the coverage won’t START until 2014, but the $11 billion in tax increases will start NOW (2010). Do you get it? Over this 10 year period they are collecting taxes for 10 years and implementing the program for 5 years. So on paper they can make it look great!

CBO report on the Baucus Bill:
*2010-2019 decrease deficit by $81 billion
*2020-2029 increase deficit by $1.2 trillion (yes, trillion with a ‘t’…somehow this number-in the same report-didn’t seem very newsworthy)

Here's a pretty graph that I found in case all of these numbers are making yoiur head hurt.

And those numbers assume that the cost estimates are accurate…a HUGE assumption! In 1965 it was projected that Medicare world cost $12 billion in 1990. In reality, Medicare cost over $100 billion in 1990. It’s pretty safe to assume that the numbers are hugely underestimated.

Is anyone curious where the money is coming from to pay for part of this disaster?

According to the same CBO report:
$4 billion- tax on individuals who don’t buy government qualified coverage
$23 billion- tax on employers who don’t offer government qualified coverage (which will mean employers will have to lower wages or lay off workers…good plan)
$200 billion- tax on health insurance plans. This includes a 40 percent tax on sales by insurers of ‘Cadillac’ policies and fees on health insurers, drug companies and device manufacturers, all of which will ultimately be passed on to consumers. (Side note…many of you probably have “Cadillac Plans”…this is any family plan deemed to be worth over $21,000 per year)

I haven’t even gotten to the best part!

The Joint Committee on Taxation says that 87 percent of the tax burden will fall on Americans making less than $200,000, and more than half on those earning under $100,000.

Didn’t a certain presidential candidate say something about not raising taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 per year? I must have dreamed that.

In addition to all of the tax/fee increases, the rest of the $829 billion will supposedly come from Medicare cuts and provider payment cuts. Seriously, do you think the politicians will vote to cut Medicare payments to old people right before re-election? I’ll leave it up to you to decide whether the $400 billion in cuts will ever actually happen or if we will just tack it on to the deficit. I mean, what’s another $400 billion in debt to pass on to our kids when we're already passing on trillions a year, right?

So what does our $829 billion buy us?

The accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers released a study that predicts that the Baucus plan would increase premiums for an average American family by $4,000 per year.

The Obama Administration’s response? Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform:

“Clearly this is not their area of expertise.”

You know, those accountants…they really need to stay away from numbers…they have no experience with money or anything like that.

Bottom line.

We are being led to believe that the end goal is to “reform” healthcare and make it more affordable and accessible. If that were truly the case, would we see all of these taxes, fees, and cost increases?

I don’t think so, but clearly this is not my area of expertise.