The Bully Bill
The Bully Bill
The WSJ writes that Pelosi is willing to do just about anything, even lose seats in 2010, to pass this disastrous health care bill:
At this point, Democrats have dumped any pretense of genuine bipartisan "reform" and moved into the realm of pure power politics as they race against the unpopularity of their own agenda. The goal is to ram through whatever income-redistribution scheme they can claim to be "universal coverage." The result will be destructive on every level--for the health-care system, for the country's fiscal condition, and ultimately for American freedom and prosperity.•The spending surge. The Congressional Budget Office figures the House program will cost $1.055 trillion over a decade, which while far above the $829 billion net cost that Mrs. Pelosi fed to credulous reporters is still a low-ball estimate. Most of the money goes into government-run "exchanges" where people earning between 150% and 400% of the poverty level--that is, up to about $96,000 for a family of four in 2016--could buy coverage at heavily subsidized rates, tied to income. The government would pay for 93% of insurance costs for a family making $42,000, 72% for another making $78,000, and so forth.
At least at first, these benefits would be offered only to those whose employers don't provide insurance or work for small businesses with 100 or fewer workers. The taxpayer costs would be far higher if not for this "firewall"--which is sure to cave in when people see the deal their neighbors are getting on "free" health care. Mrs. Pelosi knows this, like everyone else in Washington.
Even so, the House disguises hundreds of billions of dollars in additional costs with budget gimmicks. It "pays for" about six years of program with a decade of revenue, with the heaviest costs concentrated in the second five years. The House also pretends Medicare payments to doctors will be cut by 21.5% next year and deeper after that, "saving" about $250 billion. ObamaCare will be lucky to cost under $2 trillion over 10 years; it will grow more after that.
Here's how it will work in the real world, from WSJ commenter Bruce Cochener:
Our calculation is that the tax is less than half our present employee insurance costs and our costs would go up to meet the requirements of this bill, meaning that we will be compelled to drop employer insurance on our 350 employees putting them in the "public option". If onybody in the private sector believes they will keep their employers insurance program, they haven't thought it through. any company not dumping those employees is looking at extinction.
Much more at the link. As I've said before, the only hope we have is for as little change as possible.
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