Michael Cannon, The Cato Institute’s Health Care guru, has just completed his analysis of the cost of President Obama’s Health Care Proposal, and the results are even more frightening than we thought.
His conclusion?
"In reality, the Democrats’ health care bill is at least 50% more expensive than the $1.2 trillion estimate suggests."
So why is the number $1.2 trillion touted? Simple. Gimicks and trickery.
"When budgeting how it will spend your money, Congress looks out across a 10-year budget window. The current budget window runs from 2010 to 2019. A standard trick for making new government programs appear less expensive is to have them take effect not in the first year, but later in the budget window. If Congress launches a $100 million program in year one, its 10-year cost will be $1 billion. If Congress launches the program in year six, the 10-year cost is just $500 million. Delaying implementation just cut the cost of the program in half, right? Not quite. The program would still cost taxpayers $100 million per year.
That’s exactly what House Democrats have done with their medical plan. Of the $1.2 trillion that the Congressional Budget Office estimates the legislation would cost between now and 2019, Democrats would spend only $200 billion in the first five years, but $1 trillion — more than 80% of the total — in the second five years. The Senate Democrats’ medical plan includes new government spending that wouldn’t even ramp up until beyond the 10-year window."
Is it any suprise that despite Obama’s promise not to raise taxes on families making less than $250,000 a year, Obama and Congressional have passed, or are considering signing, six different taxes on the poor and middle classes.