CBO: Health Care to Cost More

The CBO just poured more cold water over Obamacare with this announcement.

The director of the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday that the health care reform legislation would cost, over the next ten years, $115 billion more than previously thought, bringing the total cost to more than $1 trillion.

The revised figure is due to estimated costs to federal agencies to implement the new health care reform bill – such as administrative expenses for the Internal Revenue Services and the Department of Health and Human Services -- and the costs for a "variety of grant and other program spending for which specified funding levels for one or more years are provided in the act."

CBO had originally estimated that the health care reform bill would result in a net reduction in federal deficits of $143 billion from 2010-2019; this revised number would eliminate most of that savings.

The announcement made the president so political vulnerable that he was moved to say this.

Reacting to the surprise announcement that congressional budget referees now predict healthcare reform could top $1 trillion, the Obama administration threatened Wednesday to veto parts of its own healthcare bill.

The politically explosive revelation, which is likely to give new impetus to the GOP’s repeal movement, came after the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said the law potentially could add at least $115 billion to government healthcare spending over the next 10 years.

There's a few problems here. First, if you actually believe Obama will veto any spending in Obamacare then you also believe all your friends every time they say this is the time they're going to give up cigarettes.

Second, since most of the spending won't kick in until 2014, it's almost certain that Obama won't be around to veto this spending anyway. All of these are projections and Obamacare won't really kick in until 2014. So, Obama is making statements he knows he'll never have to fulfill anyways.