| theprof00 said: There is a difference between gross costs and net costs. |
Yes, and while the estimated net cost is actually slightly down from its all time high, it still shows what bullshit the whole process was. When the Democrats gamed the CBO to get the number they needed and then ran around gloating about how this will "only" cost $900 billion and we need to PASS THIS BILL. Now the CBO is still relying on garbage accounting tricks, including only taking into account the first 9 years for its 10 year estimate, and is now counting on about 4 million less people to be covered, and the numbers are starting to look worse. And these are estimates. I doubt there's been a federal government program in the last century that hasn't cost 2-5 times more than its original estimate.
OT: There was an interesting bit on this at Reason a while back. I'm not really sure that the genesis of Republican anti-intellectualism was Dan Quayle's potatoe moment, but the gist of the thing rings true.
