Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Trying to Explain the Health Care Bill

Weekly Standard Editorial Oct 26, 2009
http://www.israel-commentary.org/

Democrats will bore you silly with talk about “bending the cost curve” of health care spending. The way to lower costs, they believe, is through government controls, back-room deals with pharmaceutical companies, taxes on medical equipment and personal incomes, and cuts to Medicare. The Congressional Budget Office says that Max Baucus’s health bill, which promises all of the above, will be “deficit-neutral.” But, just how serious are the Democrats about reducing entitlement spending? Not very.

Consider the Senate Democrats. While the Baucus bill promises to lower costs, another bill, sponsored by Debbie Stabenow and scheduled for a vote this week, does exactly the opposite. Beginning in January, Medicare is set to reduce payments to doctors by 21 percent, with further reductions in the future. The Stabenow bill, which the White House and congressional leadership support, would restore the cuts and add more than $200 billion to the deficit over the next decade.

The Democrats are playing three-card monte with health spending, taking money out of the system in one bill and adding it back in another. It’s yet another reason to oppose Obamacare. Based on Stabenow’s example, does anybody seriously think Democrats in Congress will ever accede to entitlement cuts? It’s yet another example of the Democrats’ condescending attitude toward the public they claim to represent. With a con job like this, they must take us all for suckers.

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