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Wednesday, October 07, 2009

CBO Assessment of "New Healthcare Plan" Still Ridiculous

The new healthcare bill would cost "only" $829 billion over the next decade (after which time the costs skyrocket, since most of the costs are back-end loaded). But magically, according to the CBO, Obamacare would reduce the deficit by $81 billion over the next decade (before going into the red again).

But - here are a few of the CBO's big assumptions:

1) Medicare spending cuts of $404 billion. (Sure, and we know government is so good at cutting costs and immune to the elderly when complaints come pouring in);
2) $201 billion tax increase on existing health care plans (tax those who currently have healthcare plans they like - they're probably racist anyway);
3) approximately $300 billion tax increase on medical and pharmaceutical companies (who won't decide to raise their prices to make a profit, right?)
4) Those medical cost increases magically disappear beginning in 2020.

Hey, what could go wrong?