Loading ...Washington, DC – Having not quite reached full media saturation, the President today reached out to a new audience, speaking to talk show host Michael Smerconish. Asked by a caller to explain what he actually wants in his still undefined health care plan, the President gave top priority to two interesting “bullet points:” budget neutrality, and long-term cost containment.
President Obama:
“Number one, its gotta be deficit neutral. This has to be paid for.”
He continued,
“Point number two, it has to bend the cost curve. What that means is, when, you’ve got to create a plan that experts credibly say will reduce health care inflation.”
Experts, like, say the experts at non-partisan Congressional Budget Office?
While the President feigns concern about costs, the CBO has made crystal clear that the plan he’s promoting in Congress fails miserably on both accounts.
Obama: “its gotta be deficit neutral.”
CBO: “House Democratic legislation overhauling the nation’s health care system would add more than $230 billion to the federal budget deficit over the next ten years, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the official scorekeeper of legislation on Capitol Hill.” (WSJ, 7/18/09)
Obama: “a plan that experts credibly say will reduce health care inflation.”
CBO: (CBO Director Doug) Elmendorf: “In the legislation that has been reported we do not see the sort of fundamental changes that would be necessary to reduce the trajectory of federal health spending by a significant amount. And on the contrary, the legislation significantly expands the federal responsibility for health care costs.” (ABC News, 7/16/09)
Sounds like even the President can’t support the Democrat bill that so many Americans reject. This might be a good time to hit the pause button and start over on health care reform. The President seems to be losing steam with his strategy of fabricating features of his plan, and hoping people won’t notice. Newsflash for Democrats: the American people aren’t dumb, and they see through the spin.
