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| Politics Forum Index » Democrats (House) Politics Forum » New York Times calls Pelosi a liar: Health care bill... |
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| Kenyan Obama... |
 Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2009 4:02 pm |
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http://www.examiner.com/x-2304-DC-Republican-Examiner~y2009m10d31-New-Yor
k-Times-calls-Pelosi-a-liar-Health-care-bill-costs-1055-trillion
The incessant stream of lies out of the Democrats is amazing. This is
the New York Times flat out saying that Pelosi tried to pull one over on
us on the cost of her bill.
Throughout Thursday, news accounts, including our own, focused on $894
billion, the total cost given out by aides to the House speaker, Nancy
Pelosi, before the official cost analysis was released by the
Congressional Budget Office.
But a closer look at the budget office report suggests that the number
everyone should have reported was $1.055 trillion, which is the gross
cost of the insurance coverage provisions in the bill before taking
account of certain new revenues, including penalties by individuals and
employers who fail to meet new insurance requirements in the bill.
The $894 billion figure that was initially seized on was not chosen at
random. It is featured prominently in the budget office report as the
net cost of the insurance coverage provisions in the bill. But the net
coverage cost is not the number that lawmakers, the news media and other
experts and analysts have focused on in recent months.
For instance, the bill initially proposed by Senator Max Baucus,
Democrat of Montana and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, after
months of negotiations with a bipartisan group of five other senators,
was projected by the budget office to have a gross cost $774 billion.
After two weeks of public debate by the Finance Committee and votes on
numerous amendments, the bill ended up with a projected gross cost of
$829 billion. Both the $774 billion and $829 billion figures are
comparable to the $1.055 trillion gross cost of the House measure.
So if we are talking apples-to-apples, the gross cost (not the net that
Pelosi used) is the figure everyone has been using in all news reports
covering the cost of the health care bills. So why is Pelosi using the
net? She's lying, of course, trying to hide the fact that she has
produced a budget-shattering bill that exceed even the president's
breathtakingly high cap of $900 billion.
And here is the lie, directly from her lips.
In a news release shortly before House Democrats held a rally to unveil
the bill, Ms. Pelosi’s office wrote: “The legislation’s coverage cost
will be $894 billion over 10 years, fully paid for.” And in her speech
at the event, Ms. Pelosi said: “It reduces the deficits, meets President
Obama’s call to keep the cost under $900 billion over 10 years, and it
insures 36 million more Americans.”
Aides to Ms. Pelosi defended their decision to focus on the $894 billion
net figure. They also pointed out that in an “apples to apples”
comparison — $1.055 trillion for the House bill vs. $829 billion for the
Senate Finance measure — the House bill is projected to insure 7 million
more people.
Finally, the CBO, the guys who tell us how much a bill costs, puts the
debate to rest.
In seeking to stay within those guidelines [the president's $900 billion
limit], lawmakers have focused on the gross cost of the coverage
provisions. By that yardstick, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget
Office has said the House bill unveiled on Thursday would cost $1.055
trillion — or about $150 billion (or $15 billion a year) more than Mr.
Obama had said the legislation should cost. Isn't it is a little
disconcerting when the Speaker of the House thinks a $150 billion lie is
no big deal? Talk about the culture of corruption. |
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