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Obama and Reid Both Double-Counted Medicare Cuts

By Philip Klein on 12.23.09 @ 3:46PM

Earlier today, the Congressional Budget Office explained that the savings generated by Democrats' proposed Medicare cuts could either be used to finance the health care bill or to extend the solvency of Medicare, but could not do both at the same time.

Put another way, Democrats cannot claim that their bill would both strengthen Medicare and decrease the defict. But that's exactly what Democrats have been claiming over the the past week.

For instance, here was President Obama, during his Saturday remarks after Democrats secured the 60 votes needed to pass the health care bill:

This bill with strengthen Medicare and extend the life of the program. Because it’s paid for and gets rid of waste and inefficiency in our health care system this will be the largest deficit reduction plan in over a decade. In fact, we just learned from the Congressional Budget Office that this bill will reduce our deficit by $132 billion over the first decade of the program, and more than one trillion dollars in the decade after that.

And here was Sen. Harry Reid, speaking on the Senate floor in advance of the key cloture motion at 1 a.m. on Monday morning:

“And it protects America’s oldest citizens by strengthening Medicare and extending its life by nearly a decade....

“This bill also strengthens our future by cutting our towering national deficit by as much as $1.3 trillion dollars over the next 20 years – that’s trillion, with a ‘T.’ It cuts the deficit more sharply than anything Congress has done in a long time.

Similar comments have been echoed by Democrats during the several weeks that the Senate has been debating health care -- it would have been nice to have the CBO memo back when it could have actually made a difference.

View all comments (8) | Leave a comment

Dell| 12.23.09 @ 4:30PM

As has been the case with every "emergency..gotta do it now or else" legislation this administration has come up with, speeding to a vote is all that's important. Democrats aren't interested in WHAT'S ACTUALLY IN the bill; just get it on the floor and vote for it. To this day, I'm certain that not ONE of them has read the entire piece of legislation...Not ONE, but they're going to pass it anyway.

It doesn't matter if it's un-Constitutional (they obviously don't care, based on the party-line 60-39 vote today). Just pass it, no matter what it costs and no matter who you have to bribe to vote for it. If your favorite feature isn't included; we'll amend it. Not to worry.

And that, friends and neighbors, is the CHANGE you elected last November.

It is totally unbelievable.

Jim Hlavac| 12.23.09 @ 4:53PM

As has been apparent for quite a while now -- the congress will pass blank paper, and the president will sign blank paper, and then some unelected, unconfirmed, unaccountable scoundrel will fill in the details later. Sounds like a good "dereliction of duty" case building here. Along with a slew of other legal problems.
I just wonder if the emasculated numskulls of the Republicans are working on any sort of legal challenges -- or are they just pining in jealousy and saying "hey, why didn't we think of that."
Really, they all have to go, one and all.

philfl63| 12.23.09 @ 9:38PM

Why even waste your time writing a column about the DemocRats and their so-called projections. They are all crooks and pathological liars. Christ you would think the author would have figured that out. Every word that comes out of their mouths is a lie to include "and" and "the". Please stop wasting our time with the blatantly obvious. I do not need someone to tell me the sun rises in the east.

Warrior| 12.23.09 @ 9:55PM

Correct. Mr. Klein has missed a golden opportunity to give the Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins breakup more attention than this health care debacle and much of the MSM has done. Shame American Spectator, shame.