The Congressional Budget Office (not Fox News, not Rush Limbaugh, not Glenn Beck, not some other source considered by those on the left to be on the right wing fringe) published Updated Estimates for the Insurance Coverage Provisions of the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a., Obamacare) on March 13, 2012.
Obamacare is now estimated to cost $1.76 trillion for eleven years through 2022, rather than the $940 billion forecast for ten years ending 2020 as represented at the time it was enacted. That’s $1,760,000,000,000 instead of $940,000,000,000. Get it? See this article in The Washington Examiner. I am still searching for a mention of this report in The New York Times (let me know if you spot one).
Is the $1.76 trillion number comparable to the $940 billion number? Not exactly as the updated numbers include estimates for 11 years through 2022 while the initial estimates were based on ten years starting in 2010. But this was a known scam to begin with and the current CBO numbers reveal the back end cost loading (see Table 2). Anyone hear anyone questioning Mr. Obama on how we are going to pay for an additional $820,000,000.000 over the next ten years, and the estimated $265,000,000,000 each year beyond 2022? Is this updated estimate reflected in Mr. Obama’s budget? Where are the questioners?
Here is the White House spin. It never compares Obamacare’s updated estimated cost with the cost when it was enacted. Does the word “dishonest” come to mind? Ever wonder about the history of actual spending on government health care programs compared to estimates at the time of enactment? And here are some known details of actual costs and taxes imposed by Obamacare.
Mr. Obama and the people in his administration don’t care what it costs. They are happy to put your children and grandchildren in hock for their lifetimes to move us to nationalized health care, to make government the supreme decider. Mr. Obama and his supporters are confident they know what is best for you and believe they have a right to impose the cost of their certainty on you. That alone is reason they all need to go. The obvious financial problems just increase the odds they will soon depart leaving a disastrous legacy.