Now, it isn't that I'm not buying. I'm not. That shouldn't surprise anyone that has read this site any more than once. What I'm not buying is that Democrats have the votes to pass this thing. The current version of Pelosi Care is no different in any significant way from H.R. 3200, which passed before the break. The bill will cost about a trillion dollars over ten years. It will cover about 35 million of the uninsured. It will have mandates for employers and for the uninsured. It will have fees for insurance companies and the wealthy. It will expand coverage of Medicare and Medicaid but cut reimbursement for both.
So, we have taxes on the uninsured and small businesses. We have cuts to both Medicare and Medicaid. It's going to cost more than the president wants. These are all the problems that Blue Dogs and others that have had since the beginning. This bill will not "add a dime to the deficit" according to Nancy Pelosi. That maybe so, but that's because it won't start to be fully implemented until 2013 while the taxes begin to be collected starting next year. That's an accounting trick and it isn't going to fool most people. Adding taxes to small business owners and the uninsured is a tax on groups that are the third rail in politics. Cutting Medicaid and Medicare is another third rail.
So, what's so different about this bill from H.R. 3200? There isn't much difference and yet Speaker Pelosi wants this voted on by the end of next week. Bart Stupak was on Fox News this morning saying that he's ready to block the bill simply from the language regarding federal funding for abortion. That's an issue that can and should be resolved and yet, that isn't resolved yet. We haven't even gotten into the weeds of this bill yet. We're still on an unnecessary divisive issue.
The same person that has blown through deadline after deadline is now telling us confidentally that in the next week and a half at the most this will be debated, voted on, and passed. I'm not buying it. This is the same train wreck that H.R. 3200 was. There's nothing diffierent here. The Blue Dogs were against that bill and they will be against this. There's nothing here that has altered the bill to make it any better. If Blue Dogs vote for this bill, they will be voted out en masse. Those that also voted for cap and trade are really in trouble.
This bill was put together in secret. No one outside of a handful of people have seen the bill in its entirety and there are reasons for that. Pelosi knows that with enough sunlight the bill will be exposed for the disaster that it is. That's what is about to happen and so I am not buying the timeline that Pelosi is pushing.
Pelosi just said it would cost less than $900 billion, not a trillion. And the bill is different because it no longer includes a public option with Medicare+5% pricing model. Instead it will use negotiated rates, which adds about $85 billion to the price tag.
ReplyDeleteOne of you two isn't being honest.
I also severely doubt that "Blue Dogs out en masse" theory of yours. Its much more likely they'll be out if they DON'T vote for it.
Well we'll see what it comes in at. If you start 4 years in to a ten year cycle it's easy to hid the costs. If you think that changing the pricing model is a big chance, then you can think that. If you think that will only cost $85 billion over ten years, then you are just absurd.
ReplyDeleteThere's also still the doctor fix. If this is under $900 billion, then it doesn't include the doctor fix which puts it over one trillion. If it includes the doctor fix, then it's over 1 trillion.
The Blue Dogs are a lot more worried about their right than their left in their districts.