Saturday, March 20, 2010

Obama, Pelosi and Health Care: Deficit Scams--Seven Deadly Sins (CBO Bean Eaters Pass Gas)

"WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congressional budget scorekeepers say a Medicare fix that Democrats included in earlier versions of their health care bill would push it into the red.
The Congressional Budget Office said Friday that rolling back a programmed cut in Medicare fees to doctors would cost $208 billion over 10 years. If added back to the health care overhaul bill, it would wipe out all the deficit reduction, leaving the legislation $59 billion in the red."


The above is from the leftist Associated Press, as even some leftist "journalists" find it hard to swallow the FRAUD involved in the Pelosi PROPAGANDA that the CBO report on the health care bill was "good news". Fox News, of course, was one of the disgraceful entities repeating that fraud as fact, even while putting on some commentators debunking the idea. Other mainstream media outlets, of course, did not even point out Pelosi's (and Obama's) fraud at all.


"Skip, you can't do a headline like that. You know that the CBO people are not bean EATERS, but bean COUNTERS." Do I? They might as well be bean eaters, since they are not ALLOWED (by Congress) to actually count the beans, and since the mainstream media follows Pelosi's lead and blasts headlines about the FRAUD of ignoring the CBO footnotes, caveats, and assumptions Let us review the SCAMS of the health care bill (which should, all alone, cause no Democrat to be elected to any office in this country for at least 10 years--at least none not affirmatively exposing these scams):


Scam no. 1 (biggest of all): It is absurd to suggest that we are "paying for" this health care bill--even if the CBO numbers were not a fraud--when we have a 12 TRILLION dollar debt, INCREASING at a deficit of 1.6 TRILLION dollars per year. Doubt me? Assume that you ran up a credit card deficit of 1 million dollars, which you can't afford, and are running a monthly deficit (expenses over revenue) of $10,000. Then you go to your accountant (a moonlighting CBO guy used to this kind of fraud) and ask whether you can afford a second yacht--can "pay for" it. But you tell the accountant that he is NOT ALLOWED to consider the interest on the debt you already owe, or that you are running a deficit every month. You tell the accountant that he is only allowed to consider the assumptions you give to him, and one of those assumptions is that you are getting a second job "earning" $250,000 a year which will "pay for" the yacht. The accountant wants to ask how lyou intend to pay for the yacht you have, and all of our other expenses--maybe suggest that this new job will not bring in as much revenue as you "project" because the economy will not do as well as you think--but the accountant is NOT ALLOWED to bring up those things (except maybe mildly, in footnotes or something). Thus, the accountant gives you the "conclusion" you have guaranteed he would have to give: "Yes, based on the assumptions in the "bill" you gave me, you CAN afford that second yacht." Now people have gone to JAIL (Enron?) for frauds less obvious than this, which is not a bad idea for Pelosi. But politicians think that they will not only avoid jail, but get reelected. It is up to US to make sure they are wrong.


Scam no. 2: The costs of this health care bill--the "benefits"--mainly do not begin for FOUR YEARS. But the revenues--to the extent they are rel--start right away (in the main, except for other scams referred to below). Let us go back to our poor bean counter again--our CBO account. We tell him that he MUST, in his calculations, consider that we will be renting out the second yacht we are buying for 4 years, without any extra expenses (see AP quote above as to fraud in this), but that I will then be OBLIGATED for the full cost of the yacht, including major ongoing expense. The accountant is again NOT ALLOWED to suggest that you NEED that "rent money" to pay for your OTHER YACHT, and your ongoing deficit. The accountant MUST assume that you "save" that "rent money". Then the accounted must consider a ten year period comparing apples and oranges--comparing 10 years of revenue (assumed to be ongoing) with 6 years of "benefits" (when you actually get to use the yacht). What if you needed the yacht for your HEALTH, and the uncertainty of whether than second yacht may really help you may kill you. Too bad. It will be FOUR YEARS before you even know what you are buying--much less get to use it. That is what the Democrats are doing to us. To GAME the CBO, they have postponed the "benefits" of this health care legislation for FOUR YEARS, but the TAXES are going into effect immediately (10 years of revenue the CBO is required to compare to 6 years of expenses). This is, again, FRAUD. It further guarantees a four year nightmare, as 1/5 of our economy is left in uncertain turmoil for four years. Further, the immediate new TAXES will hurt the economy, and hiring, just when we are trying to come out of this deep recession. Disaster. And the CBO has been FORCED to "sign off" on this They should sue for defamation.


Scam no. 3: See the AP "lead" quoted at the beginning. Way back in the Clinton Administration (a DEMOCRAT administration), the Medicare formula for reimbursement of doctors was scheduled to change. Yes, this was a CUT in Medicare, designed to help "save" Medicare. The CBO duly "scored" this bill to raise so much money in the future. The future is NOW. However, letting that CUT in Medicare go into effect, as that previous CBO was FORCED to assume would happen, will CUT reimbursement to doctors for care of the elderly by as much as 22%. Cardiologists and oncologists have already said tthat the elderly will NOT GET CARE if this goes into effect. Democrats have PROMISED (a former BRIBE to get support for the health care bill from the AMA) to "fix" this threat to the care of the elderly by again adjusting the formula back so that doctors do not suffer this 22% cut. This was part of the health care bill, where it clearly belongs--more than the government takeover of student loans and more student aid. Indeed, $500,000 in "savings" in Medicare is still included in the health care bill, despite the fact that those "savings" are NEEDED to cover the 200-3000 billion in extra deficit Medicare is going to suffer because of this "fix". That $00 billion--if real--in "savings" is NOT a "necessary" part of the health care bill. It is more properly a part of a MEDICARE bill--having nothing to do with health insurance. However, Pelosi and Obama NEEDED the fictional "saving" to "pay for" the bill, and so they instructed the CBO to ignore the doctor "fix". However, the doctor "fix" is still going to happen. FRAUD again, as the CBO is again GAMED. This time the CBO is TELLING YOU (see AP story) that they have been GAMED, but Pelosi and Obama are counting on the mainstream media to ignore the fraud.


Go back to our hypothetical. You tell your accountant--who supposedly is going to tell you whether you can afford a second yacht--that you need repairs on the first yacht. But you expect to SAVE more than those repairs by stopping scams people are using to skim money off of the operating budget of the yacht into their pocket. The accountant tells you: "Fine, but you realize that if you use the "savings" on the first yacht to pay for the needed repairs, then you can't afford the second yacht--even under these ridiculous conditions you are placing on me." Well, this does not bother YOU (Pelosi and Obama). You merely tell the accountant (CBO): "Fine. Don't consider the repairs I need for the first yacht. That is entirely a separate matter. But do consider the "savings" on the first yacht. You must assume that those savings "pay for" my second yacht, whether I need them for the first yacht or not.


Scam no. 4: What about that $500 billion dollars in Medicare "savings'" needed to cover the rising cost of Medicare, including that "doctor fix"? Will the "savings" really happen? Go back again to that CUT in doctor reimbursement, previously ""scored" by the CBO. We KNOW that is NOT going to happen. If Obama and the Congress could "save" all of that money from Medicare, why have they not already done so? Democrats--including Obama, before he was President--have controlled Congress since 2007. If all we had to do was wave a magic wand and "save" all of this money from Medicare, why have we not already done it? And part of that "saving" is a CUT in Medicare Advantage--a cut so disadvantageous to senior citizens--raising the costs fro those on the Medicare Advantage program or maybe doing away with the program entirely--that FLORIDA received an exemption (bribe) from those cuts in the Senate bill. Now we KNOW Democrats intend to eventually KILL OFF senior citizens by denying care to those who use too many medical resources. However, do the politicians really have the will to follow through on the CUTS in Medicare? And as for "fraud, waste and abuse", I have heard about saving money by eliminating that all of my adult life. The next time it happens will be the FIRST. Now Obama may well CLAIM to accomplish such "savings", as he has claimed to "save/create" jobs, but past experience tells you that real "savings" are not going to happen.


Back to our hypothetical case. The accountant asks you: "If you can really save all of that money on the first yacht, why have you not already done it?" You say: "It is in the bill. You have to assume I will do it". Accountant ant: "What bill?" Oops! I left the hypothetical. Accountant: You told me more than a decade ago that you were going to cut ongoing costs for your first yacht, but you are telling me today that you have to revise that to save the first yacht, even though I am not allowed to consider that cost in "scoring" whether you can afford a second yacht. Are you sure it is okay for me to make these unreasonable assumptions?" You (Pelosi/Obama): "You are just a bean eather--oops, bean counter--and it is not for you to reason why. You juts do what I tell you, and assume what I tell you to assume. If it is in the bill--oops again--you are REQUIRED to believe that I can wave a magic wand and make it happen."


Scam no. 5: What about all of the extra Federal employees and expenses in OTHER parts of the government caused by this incredible new bureaucracy and 3000 page bill? What about extra IRS expense to enforce the mandatory insurance/fines procedure? Won't this bill cause all kinds of extra expenses not directly part oft he bill? YES. The CBO says that will occur, in another one of those footnotes. Now the CBO says--optimistically--that this will ony be a matter of tens of billions of dollars instead of hundreds of billions of dollars, but it remains part of the FRAUD here. This bill is going to bloat the entire Federal Government beyond all measuring--once it goes into full effect. I tire of the hypothetical, and will therefore leave it as an exercise for the reader to extend these last scams to the hypothetical.


Scam no. 6: Will the extra taxes really raise as much revenue as projected? Well, new taxes almost never do, when you take into account the REDUCED revenue from the damage done to the economy. The CBO--another footnote-says that its projections assume no new "downturn". Yet, the taxes in this bill will make such a downturn more likely. My brother, the accountant, says this health care bill will make a depression CERTAIN. I am not a wild and woolly bean eater, and therefore I would not go that far. I will merely say that economic disaster is the likely result of this bill,for many reasons.


Scam no. 7: You want to know how worthless the Democrats--and Republicans before them--have made the CBO? I can tell ou how to GAME every CBO "score", without even being creative. Just put in every spending bill an outrageous new tax, to take effect FIVE YEARS FROM NOW. Think how "good" a score Pelosi could have gotten by simply putting a 90% income tax in the bill on everyone making over $250,000, to "take effect" 5 years from now. You know, and I know--as Pelosi knows--that such a tax would never take effect. But the hapless bean eaters of the CBO would have to "score" it as if they believed the law would be actually put into effect (and as if such a tax would not DESTROY the economy). You see how easy it is to GAME the CBO "score". You say that Pelosi and Congress would never commit that kind of fraud? Read the above again. They DID--in fact in this very manner. Remember that tax on Cadillac health care plans, where unions got a special exemption? Well, in one version of the bill--why should I know what will be in the final version when members of Congress have no idea even as they vote--that "Cadillac tax" would not happen until 2016. Yet, Congress was perfectly willing to have the CBO "socre" such a ridiculous provision, as if it were ever going to raise any revenue.


Democrats have done a lot. They have DESTROYED any procedural rules of Congress. NO future Congress, if this bill gets pushed through and maybe even if it does not, is going to worry about the filibuster rule--or any other rule of Congress. There are simply no longer gong to be any rules. Bills will be routinely "deemed" passed, and every other deceptive rule change will be fair game. There will be--maybe already are--NO RULES. It is just a matter of how much DECEPTION you can get away with. And the CBO is now officially USELESS. With tis bill, Democrats have shown--without even much "sugar coating"--that the CBO "score" is merely a game to be played with phony numbers and assumptions.


For the WAY they are trying to pass this bill, every participating Democrat should be barred from public office for ten years. It is up to us to see that happens. The bill itself, unfortunately, may ensure that THIS COUNTRY will not last another ten years--in recognizable form


P.S. No, the list of scams does not end with 7. I never even got into the BRIBES and PAYOFFS, except in passing. But you get the idea. If you don't get the picture by now, nothing I can say is going to mean anything to you. You are brain dead. .

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