The American Spectator

home
ADVERTISEMENT
Print Email
Text Size

The Spectacle Blog

As Democrats have delayed releasing their final health care reconciliation bill, they’ve consistently tried to create the impression that they’re essentially finished, but are merely waiting on the Congressional Budget Office. For instance, House whip Jim Clyburn told Fox earlier that, “We are still waiting on the CBO, the Congressional Budget Office, to give us its final number on what this thing will cost.” Yet the delay in releasing the bill and CBO score (which was initially supposed to come out as early as last week) has suggested something else – that early estimates from the CBO were bad, and they’re making changes to get the score that they want.

It now appears that this is precisely the case. A story from Congressional Quarterly reports:

House Democratic leaders are still struggling to produce a final health care overhaul bill at an acceptable official cost estimate, but Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer said Tuesday they continue to plan a final vote this week. House leaders were to huddle late Tuesday afternoon, following a noon session of the full Democratic Caucus. There were reports they are having trouble drafting a bill that meets their budgetary targets….

Rank-and-file Democrats did not talk about the details, but said that the CBO scores had come up short.  “They were less than expected” in terms of deficit reduction, said Rep. Gene Green, D-Texas, who plans to vote for the bill.

There are several things that Democrats are up against when it comes to the CBO score. The most important is that, based on reconciliation instructions, the “fix” bill must be shown to reduce the deficit. The challenge is, that’s after assuming that the Senate bill is law. In other words, the reconciliation bill can’t claim any of the deficit reduction from the Senate bill, but rather it must reduce the deficit relative to the Senate bill. Yet the changes that are being talked about will cost a lot of money. This includes eliminating the “Cornhusker kickback” and offering enhanced Medicaid subsidies to all states, increasing subsidies for the purchase of insurance, eliminating the so-called "donut hole" on Medicare prescription drug benefits, and whatever else they put in the bill. At the same time, delaying until 2018 the enactment of the “Cadillac tax” would be scored as a reduction in revenue, and thus add further to the deficit. They’d have to make up the gap through tax increases as well as try to siphon “savings” away from the student loan bill. (More on that here.) But evidently it seems like they’re running into trouble on this front.

Another issue to keep in mind is President Obama’s pledge that the health care bill would cost “around $900 billion" The changes he’s proposed to the Senate bill would bring the total cost of health care legislation to $950 billion, according to the White House. Every dollar exceeding that will make it easier for Republicans to argue he broke his pledge, and at some threshold even the media will have to call him out on it. That isn’t a fight that Democrats are going to want to get into.

Also, Democrats need a CBO score that’s positive enough to help give Blue Dogs who claim to be fiscal conservatives an excuse to vote for the bill.

So this is why it’s Tuesday afternoon and we still haven’t seen a final bill or CBO score. They won’t release a bill as final if the score isn’t to their liking. Democrats could still keep making changes and coming up with new gimmicks to get the estimate that they want, but they do not have forever. If they want to pass a bill by Saturday night and post it online 72 hours in advance, then the latest we they could put things off would be until tomorrow.

View all comments (7) | Leave a comment

jeanneb| 3.16.10 @ 4:39PM

At some point, can we stop calling it the "non partisan" CBO?

If they work for US (not the Dems) then the CBO should be releasing its scoring to US...not to the Dem leadership. This "hide the ball" while leaders tweak their numbers is as partisan as it gets.

PCC| 3.16.10 @ 6:59PM

Dear Mr. Klein,

You may be right concerning the critical importance of a good CBO score as well as the necessity under reconciliation to reduce the deficit by $1 billion (although both of these figures are basically made out of whole cloth and are subject to accounting gimmickry).

However, to think that the Blue Dogs will take a principled stand or that President Obama will be constrained by a campaign pledge is ridiculous.

psutopgun| 3.17.10 @ 7:12PM

I believe the demo leaders got the numbers yesterday but didn't like what they saw so they're changing the wording to get the numbers they want to see. Much like they'll kill us all off with their health care until the numbers look good to the leaders of the USSR of America.

office 2007| 3.26.10 @ 9:44PM

windows 7 ultimate VS Windows 7 Pro ...

ella| 4.26.10 @ 12:54PM

Their districts should do us all a favor and vote them out of office just to get Pelosi out of the speaker's chair - she's a monster, and I ain't just talking appearances. internet fax

Lisa| 12.20.10 @ 9:14AM

I believe the demo leaders got the numbers yesterday but didn't like what they saw so they're changing the wording to get the numbers they want to see. Much like they'll kill us all off with their health care until the numbers look good to the leaders of the USSR of America. Mode Girl

Jessica| 5.13.11 @ 1:05PM

I was recently on Fähren reisen and met some democrats. They told me that this issue has been solved now and that the CBO has been found. On the fähren reisen they told a lot about their party which was very interesting for us europeans.

Leave a Comment

N.B. We encourage readers to share and discuss their thoughtful and relevant comments about this Spectator article. Comments are routinely monitored and will be deleted if profane, bigoted, or grossly impolite. Please be respectful. (And don't feed the trolls!) Thank you.

More Blog Posts by Philip Klein

http://spectator.org/blog/2010/03/16/dems-still-dont-have-the-cbo-s

ADVERTISEMENT

The Spectacle Blog

Sulllivan Silliness

Ross Kaminsky | 5:40PM

Meghan McCain Doesn't Get It

Jeffrey Lord | 1:36PM

The Paul Factor

W. James Antle, III | 1:29PM

Bain v. Solyndra

W. James Antle, III | 12:11PM

Illusionist

Yogi Love | 10:06AM

At Least He Apologized

Ross Kaminsky | 8:34AM

SPONSORED LINKS

Special Feature

Better that we become a nation of choosers rather than beggars. Our symposium on choice from the May, 2012 issue:

A Time for Choosing

James Piereson

The Road from Serfdom

Stephen Moore and Peter Ferrara

FLASHBACK TO: 1984

Clip of the Day

Most Popular Articles

Meet the Flukes!

F. H. Buckley | 5.25.12

Terror by Any Other Name

Robert Stacy McCain | 5.29.12

The White House Sieve

Jed Babbin | 5.29.12

The Wisconsin Turning Point

Peter Ferrara | 5.23.12

In Search of Muhammad

Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi | 5.25.12

Osceola Who?

Reid Collins | 5.29.12

The Bain of Romney's Existence

W. James Antle | 5.29.12

ADVERTISEMENT