Disclaimer: I do not enjoy being the bearer of bad news. But this has been almost a NO NEWS day and so this bad news is close to the only news I have seen. Don't kill the messenger.
The hits just keep on coming. This is the kind of news that Republicans, blue dogs and the mainstream media will pile up on for good effect. I expect Sunday talk shows to include a strong dose of this report.
At least the CBO said that the new plan will not COST money.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings, but there it is. Can this CBO report be blown off or reinterpreted? Perhaps. But man, I wish Elmendorf would find a way to STFUP!
One thing I would say about all of these NON SAVING savings plans is that they simply highlight the necessity of the public option. HELLO in every bill that includes a serious public option, serious savings appear. The bigger and better the public option, the more the savings. Somebody needs to say THAT.
From Politico
For the second time in a week, congressional budget analysts have dealt a blow to the Democrat's health reform efforts, this time by saying a plan touted by the White House as crucial to paying for the bill would actually save almost no money over 10 years.
A key House chairman and moderate House Democrats on Tuesday agreed to a White House-backed proposal that would give an outside panel the power to make cuts to government-financed health care programs. White House budget director Peter Orszag declared the plan "probably the most important piece that can be added" to the House's health care reform legislation.
But on Saturday, the Congressional Budget Office said the proposal to give an independent panel the power to keep Medicare spending in check would only save about $2 billion over 10 years- a drop in the bucket compared to the bill's $1 trillion price tag.
"In CBO's judgment, the probability is high that no savings would be realized . but there is also a chance that substantial savings might be realized. Looking beyond the 10-year budget window, CBO expects that this proposal would generate larger but still modest savings on the same probabilistic basis," CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf wrote in a letter to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer on Saturday.
The proposal's meager savings are a blow to Democrats working furiously to bring down costs in order to win support from their party's fiscally conservative Blue Dogs, who have threatened to vote against the bill without significant changes. The proposal was heralded as a breakthrough on Tuesday after Blue Dogs and House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman emerged from the White House with agreement on giving the independent panel, rather than Congress, the ability to rein in Medicare spending.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/...