My headline above is not entirely accurate, but then, few specifics regarding health care legislation is being reported accurately. Pelosi’s self proclaimed “most open and transparent” congress in over a hundred years has been nothing of the sort under Democrat leadership. So what’s the latest Democratic scam to surface from Pelosi’s grifters? Why it’s the doctor fix, resurrected from the health care chopping block and it is piggy-backing fiscal responsibility.
Let me set the stage.
Democrats received all kinds of heat over the summer for the deficit costs of HR3200. The way Democrats tried to sell HR3200 went a little like this, “Our health care reform is deficit neutral! In fact, we’ll even have a surplus. Except for the Doctor fix which is one third of the total cost of the plan. The rest is surplus Baby!” In combination with the November elections showing voters were growing weary of Big Spend Democrat policies, Pelosi’s legislation needed a deficit neutral CBO scoring to get Blue Dog support. As a result, Pelosi dropped the Doctor Fix from her bill.
The Doctor Fix is a correction to current legislation, which promises to dramatically cut the reimbursement rate that doctors receive for Medicare. Essentially, it was the carrot being used to get AMA support.
Since Pelosi fixed the Doctor Fix Bob Barker style, her health care bill got the deficit neutral thumbs up from the CBO and Democrats passed the legislation. Byron York is reporting that the Doctor Fix is back and it’s piggy-backing Pay-Go legislation.
According to the Washington Examiner:
But it just happens that the Democratic version of Pay-Go contains a specific exemption for the doctor fix. So the House could approve a measure that would cost $210 billion, have no way to pay for it and still meet the requirements it has set for itself in terms of restraining spending.
In essence, the house plans to pass a bill requiring that congress find funding for all spending with an amendment that costs $210 billion in unfunded spending.
It’s a slick gimmick so that the lapdog media can report lies of omission. Congress will say that health care legislation is fully funded by congress. The media will report this as if it were true. Congress will say that they passed Pay-Go legislation that requires congress to fund all legislation. The media will report this as if it were true. It’s a confidence game perpetrated by congress with the media as an accomplice.
In reality if the Pay-Go bill is passed, we will have the same deficit ridden health care legislation as would have occurred under HR3200 and a Pay-Go bill to curb unfunded spending that kicks in right after congress has maxed out the taxpayer's credit card.
Now I’m not saying that a Doctor Fix should not be considered and debated. I’m not saying that Pay-Go isn’t something that should be considered and debated. I’m saying that Democrats are grifting legislation to sell you an unconventional health care mortgage and hiding all the nasty details in the fine print. Those that are perpetrating this are the same that have condemned banks as bastions of greed for the same shenanigans.
Read more about leftist shenanigans:
The report the left was starving for
Your weatherman may believe in the bogeyman, but not climate change
Calling out those that don't get McCain. Not that one, The Other McCain
Obama Has A Dream and Reaganite Republican is having a little fun with them.
3 comments
Great post. Very important topic. The shell games get more creative every day.
November 17, 2009 at 3:49 PMThe very way the plan changes insurance rules radically at the same time as it directs government money to offset people’s healthcare costs is total baloney. It’s almost like they're hoping that people see they're spending less for healthcare after this goes into effect and think that most of the savings are due to the genius of the government plan instead of borrowed money. They’re two separate things. If we just wanted to borrow money from our kids to pay for our healthcare, we could simply do a large healthcare tax credit. If we just want a gov’t-run insurance option, we could have a deficit-neutral one. I don’t know of if any of its architects are this devious, but it sure seems to me that the only point of injecting taxpayer money into this thing is to make it feel like it’s better than it is.
November 17, 2009 at 5:39 PMKlik - thanks for stopping by. You've been on a roll with your content, keep it up.
November 17, 2009 at 11:32 PMCJ - I'm planning on posting an article tomorrow from a NYT writer and the health care proposals. His outlook was very similar to yours. You might be interested.
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