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theprof00 on 14 March 2012
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badgenome said:
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.

Rather than argue about what lurks in the shadows, I'd like you to hear my point that Republicans are now going crazy over this number, as you did, without even taking note (or being told by your media), that the net costs at the beginning was 900B, for 9 years, and now sits at 1.13T accounting for 11 years.

Meanwhile, even talking about Obama makes you furious, which is admirable in itself how the right media is able to make people so angry that they stop paying attention to the numbers.

PS: That 4 million less people is accounting for the 4 million who's unemployment is now up. There has been no reduction in coverage by the plan, the only change is that unemployment benefits is up for many. The savings results from the insurance signups that people are going to have to do on their own, and fees relating to not having insurance.

 

"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The estimated net costs of expanding healthcare coverage under President Barack Obama's landmark restructuring have been reduced by $48 billion through 2021, though fewer people would be covered under private insurance plans, a new analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office showed on Tuesday.

By reducing the estimated net 2012-2021 costs to $1.083 trillion from $1.131 trillion a year ago, the CBO report could help Democrats blunt some of the criticism over the high costs of extending coverage to some 47 million uninsured Americans, as they try to tout savings elsewhere in the law.

These cost reductions are largely due to lower estimates for subsidies and tax credits associated with the law's planned insurance exchanges for individual coverage.

The CBO also added another year to its overall cost estimate for the insurance provisions, extending it out to 2022, for an 11-year net cost of $1.252 billion."

 

""Those amounts do not encompass all of the budgetary impacts of the ACA because that legislation has many other provisions, including some that will cause significant reductions in Medicare spending and others that will generate added tax revenues, relative to what would have occurred under prior law. CBO and JCT have previously estimated that the ACA will, on net, reduce budget deficits over the 2012â€"2021 period; that estimate of the overall budgetary impact of the ACA has not been updated.4""