The report given the "catchy" title ObamaCare: A Budget-Busting, Job-Killing Health Care Law (embedded below) predicts that assumptions such as double counting the medicare cuts hide the fact that Obamacare will actually increase the budget deficit.
Speaker Boehner stated
“The evidence is clear: by raising taxes, imposing new mandates, and increasing uncertainty for employers and entrepreneurs, ObamaCare is already destroying jobs in this country. And it will continue to destroy jobs unless we do something about it. The report released today shows how the health care law is making it harder to end the job-killing spending binge that threatens our children’s future. When you look at it dollar by dollar, the numbers just don’t add up. This report presents a very sobering picture, and every lawmaker and taxpayer – no matter where you stand on this critical issue – should take a look at it.According to an analysis by House Budget Committee Republicans, the health care law will cost the nation $2.6 trillion when fully implemented, and add $701 billion to the deficit in its first ten years. Just to put that $701 Billion over ten years number in perspective, the excuse progressive Democrats gave for not extending the Bush Tax cuts to people making over $250,000 was that the higher taxes would reduce the deficit by $700 Billion. I suppose this $700 Billion doesn't count in liberal minds. Additionally the Budget Committee is not saying that the CBO issued bad numbers, but that the guidelines given to the CBO by the House Democrats to prepare the estimate was politically flawed:
- $53 billion of savings is claimed by counting increased Social Security payroll revenues. These dollars, however, are already spoken for by Social Security beneficiaries, meaning either that benefits will not be paid out, or the law‟s authors are double-counting the savings.
- $70 billion of savings is claimed from the newly created Community Living Assistance Services and Support (CLASS) program. These savings are achieved by collecting premiums immediately and beginning to pay out benefits after five years, hence why savings appears in the ten-year budget window. Over time, however, as CBO has found, this new entitlement “would eventually lead to net outlays when benefits exceed premiums.” The Washington Post has said of the CLASS program: “These are not savings‟ that can be honestly counted on the balance sheet of reform.”lSenate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND) has called CLASS “a Ponzi scheme of the first order.”
- $115 billion in new government spending required to implement the health care law is not factored into CBO’s initial estimate. On May 11, CBO notified Congress that additional discretionary spending would be required to implement the government takeover of health care. This includes roughly $9 billion for both the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
- $398 billion is claimed in Medicare Hospital Insurance Fund savings. CBO has previously noted that “to describe the full amount of HI trust fund savings as both improving the government‟s ability to pay future Medicare benefits and financing new spending outside of Medicare would essentially double-count a large share of those savings and thus overstate the improvement in the government‟s fiscal position.”liii
- The remaining costs come from the fact that the CBO estimate also does not account for the cost of the cuta in Medicare payments to physicians (the doc fix.)
Just as serious for the economy is the fact that Obamacare will cause significant job losses for the U.S. economy. A study by the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) found that the employer mandate could lead to the elimination of 1.6 million jobs between 2009 and 2014, with 66 percent of those coming from small businesses.
Remember when Nancy Pelosi said Obamacare would “create 4 million jobs , 400,000 jobs almost immediately?" The reason her numbers were so positive was the source, George Soros' Center for American Progress (CAP). When Americans for Tax Reform and the Beacon Hill Institute used the same methodology (but more realistic cost estimates) to come up with they effect on employment, they found that the law will destroy between 120,000 and 700,000 jobs over the same ten-year period.
Furthermore, during the health care debate, more than 130 respected economists addressed a letter to President Obama stating “the health care bill contains a number of provisions that will eliminate jobs, reduce hours and wages, and limit future job creation.
According to the economists, the job-killing provisions include:
- “New Taxes. The bill raises taxes by almost $500 billion over ten years. A significant portion of these tax increases will fall on small business owners, reducing capital and limiting economic growth and hiring.
- “New and Increased Medicare Taxes. An increase in the Medicare payroll tax included in the bill will affect small businesses employing millions of Americans. Over time, higher payroll taxes will decrease wages for these employees. And a new Medicare tax on investment income such as interest, dividends, and capital gains proposed by President Obama and likely included in the bill will threaten jobs and decrease economic growth.
- “Employer Mandate. The bill will impose a tax of $2,000 per employee on employers with more than 50 employees that do not provide health insurance. The bill will also tax employers that offer health coverage deemed unaffordable‟ by the government. These new taxes on employers will reduce employment or be passed on to workers in the form of lower wages or reduced hours.”
Obama Care Report
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