Let’s Change Their Address To Jail
Mar 19, 2014 Political
CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf had some sobering words about the state of our fiscal health and is indicating that we will have to employ some combination of higher taxes, cutting spending or scaling back programs that have been robbed by politicians.
Elmendorf said that the growth in spending of Social Security and health care programs has resulted in “fundamental fiscal challenges.” He claims that we have the three choices outlined to fix the problem which exists because politicians took the money that people paid in and spent it on other things.
What he is basically saying is that you sheep paid into these programs and government spent YOUR money on other things and since government can’t repay what it stole YOU have to pay more in. You paid it in and now you have to pay again because they robbed you blind.
Imagine what members of Congress would do to a business that managed people’s money like Congress has managed ours. The legal eagles would be all over this and the person (or persons) who stole your money would be in jail.
Not so with our elected officials. They robbed you blind and they expect you to pay more to remedy their theft. They do not feel they should be held accountable for violating your trust. Yes, you did trust them. The government set up Social Security and forced people to participate. The promise was that if you paid a little in to the account each pay you would have money for retirement. Don’t worry; big government will look after your money until you retire.
Problem is whenever money sits around a politicians thinks it needs to be spent. So spend it they did and now the lock box only has worthless IOUs in it. The only way to replace the money you paid in is to take more money from you.
Of course, they will spend that as well.
We need to abolish the Social Security system. We can allow those on it or near retirement to stay in and they will eventually die off. The rest of us can put our own money away and when we retire it will be there.
Even though government robbed Americans of trillions of dollars people still think it is a good idea to have government in charge of health care.
What could possibly go wrong?
I think one change that Elmendorf did not address is the change that would help the most. We need a change of address for all the politicians.
That address should be a prison.
One run by Sheriff Arpaio…
Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Tags: arpaio, cbo, pain, social security, taxes
How Have Past Government Estimates Worked Out?
Apr 13, 2010 Political
The big deal about this health care takeover is that the CBO, using specific assumptions provided by Democrats, came up with a score that told us how much the bill would cost and how much it would save in a ten year period. This is all smoke and mirrors but Democrats dutifully appear in front of constituents and claim the new law will cost what was estimated and will save money. They continue to harp this possibly under the meme that if you say something enough, people will start to believe it.
The reality is that this law will cast more than estimated (two to three times more) and therefore, will not save money. I know that the progressives believe what they are told by government. Strike that, they believe what they are told by progressives/liberals/Democrats in government. If a conservative from government told them they needed oxygen to live they would say it was a lie and that the conservative was a hate monger who was talking about death squads.
Let us take a look at what Jim Quinn of Lew Rockwell.com has to say about past government estimates:
Politicians have demonstrated over decades to be completely ignorant of the long-term impact of the rules and regulations they have inflicted upon the American people. For those who believe that creating a new entitlement for 32 million people, hiring 16,500 new IRS agents to enforce the new regulations, and allowing government boards to make your healthcare decisions for you will reduce costs and improve healthcare, I will point you to the facts versus promise of prior legislation. A Senate Joint Economic Committee released a report in 2009 found that health care plan costs are always dramatically underestimated by the politicians that create the entitlements:
- Medicare (hospital insurance) – In 1965, as Congress considered legislation to establish a national Medicare program, the House Ways and Means Committee estimated that the hospital insurance portion of the program, Part A, would cost about $9 billion annually by 1990.v Actual Part A spending in 1990 was $67 billion. The actuary who provided the original cost estimates acknowledged in 1994 that, even after conservatively discounting for the unexpectedly high inflation rates of the early ‘70s and other factors, “the actual [Part A] experience was 165% higher than the estimate.”
- Medicare (entire program) – In 1967, the House Ways and Means Committee predicted that the new Medicare program, launched the previous year, would cost about $12 billion in 1990. Actual Medicare spending in 1990 was $110 billion – off by nearly a factor of 10.
- Medicaid DSH program – In 1987, Congress estimated that Medicaid’s disproportionate share hospital (DSH) payments – which states use to provide relief to hospitals that serve especially large numbers of Medicaid and uninsured patients – would cost less than $1 billion in 1992. The actual cost that year was a staggering $17 billion. Among other things, federal lawmakers had failed to detect loopholes in the legislation that enabled states to draw significantly more money from the federal treasury than they would otherwise have been entitled to claim under the program’s traditional 50-50 funding scheme.
- Medicare home care benefit – When Congress debated changes to Medicare’s home care benefit in 1988, the projected 1993 cost of the benefit was $4 billion. The actual 1993 cost was more than twice that amount, $10 billion.
- Medicare catastrophic coverage benefit – In 1988, Congress added a catastrophic coverage benefit to Medicare, to take effect in 1990. In July 1989, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) doubled its cost estimate for the program, for the four-year period 1990-1993, from $5.7 billion to $11.8 billion. CBO explained that it had received newer data showing it had significantly under-estimated prescription drug cost growth, and it warned Congress that even this revised estimate might be too low. This was a principal reason Congress repealed the program before it could take effect.
- SCHIP – In 1997, Congress established the State Children’s Health Insurance Program as a capped grant program to states, and appropriated $40 billion to be doled out to states over 10 years at a rate of roughly $5 billion per year, once implemented. In each year, some states exceeded their allotments, requiring shifts of funds from other states that had not done so. By 2006, unspent reserves from prior years were nearly exhausted. To avert mass disenrollments, Congress decided to appropriate an additional $283 million in FY 2006 and an additional $650 million in FY 2007.
Based on this track record, do you believe President Obama when he declares that his national healthcare plan will save $136 billion in the first ten years? It appears the rocket scientists on the Democratic side of the aisle have trouble estimating the costs of the entitlements they hand out on a regular basis. Republicans, on the other hand, tend to slightly underestimate the cost of their invasions (Rummy says $50 billion; taxi meter says $977 billion and counting).
The entire piece is quite long but is well worth the read. It lays out very nicely what the new entitlement program will cost and how the estimates are nowhere near what will actually occur.
There is no doubt that the government does not get estimates correct. One can blame the CBO but that entity only scores what it is given and it is given only what is needed to get the score desired. It does not matter what party is involved because they both submit only what they want scored and only what will give the desired results.
The government deliberately does this to fool people into supporting the legislation. By the time most of it implodes many of those who lied to us will be out of office or dead. Many of them are wealthy and don’t really care about what the law does because it will not affect them. Even if they subject themselves to the bill they are wealthy enough to pay for what they want and while they are in office they have access to the top floor at Walter Reed where a million dollars a year keeps a ward ready in case some dignitary needs care. This includes members of Congress.
Once they are out of office they will enjoy what their money can buy for them. They will be able to spend their money anywhere in the US they want to get care. The only difference between them and a Canadian politician is that the Canadian needs a passport to get the care here.
And does anyone really think they will get the same care as members of Congress? Ted Kennedy received top-notch care on a moment’s notice. Anyone who thinks that Mac Daddy Obama is going to provide them with the same treatment that Teddy or any other politician gets is smoking some of the good stuff.
Read the article. There is no doubt they deceived us. There is no denying that their previous estimates of programs were lies and did not pan out. There is no doubt that they have been off by many multiples of the original cost on these past programs.
And there is no doubt that this is true for the new law.
Not to worry though. We will just print more money.
Never surrender, never submit.
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Tags: cbo, Congress, estimates, jim quinn, lew rockwell, lies, Obama, ted kennedy
Obamacare Gets Ringing Communist Endorsement
Mar 26, 2010 Political
Fidel Castro of Cuba has hailed the Obama takeover of health care as a great thing. Castro, the Communist who led Cuba for decades, is happy that the US has finally done what it took Cuba only 50 years to do.
Unfortunately, we will have the same outcome. Cuba’s economy is in the dumper as people cannot get food, and other basic needs items. Health care, despite Michael Moore’s claims, is not that good there. Castro had doctors from other countries flown in when he needed expert care. In this country, the elites will get the best as well while the serfs are relegated to substandard, rationed care.
Interestingly, Obama and his Democrats have declared that the health care takeover will decrease the deficit. They touted CBO numbers (even though the CBO can only score what it is given) as proof positive they were heading in the right direction.
That very same CBO has predicted that Obama’s 2011 budget will cost 1.2 TRILLION dollars more than Obama had predicted and will have our debt at 90% of GDP by the year 2020. If Obamacare saves us money how can our debt go up?
President Obama’s fiscal 2011 budget will generate nearly $10 trillion in cumulative budget deficits over the next 10 years, $1.2 trillion more than the administration projected, and raise the federal debt to 90 percent of the nation’s economic output by 2020, the Congressional Budget Office reported Thursday. Washington Times
As anyone knows, it does not matter how much you claim to save if you spend more than you actually save.
And if Obama was 1.2 TRILLION dollars off on his budget what confidence are we to have that he is not off on how much health care will cost?
Ed Schultz told his listeners “he believes the next “socialist” takeover by the government should be on all the radio airwaves.” [emphasis mine]
Next, as in after health care…
Never surrender, never submit.
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Tags: cbo, communism, debt, fidel castro, health care, lies, Obama
Democrats Played Fast And Loose With Cost Estimates
Dec 26, 2009 Political
The Democrats used DC math to get estimates from the CBO to meet the requirements set forth by Obama in reference to health care costs. Democrats claim that the health care overhaul will save money but they apply so called savings to two different items. It is physically impossible to use “saved” money, in its entirety, for two different things.
The Congressional Budget Office challenged claims by health-care overhaul proponents that Medicare savings in Senate legislation would help finance expanded coverage and postpone the bankruptcy of the medical program for the elderly.
The nonpartisan agency said the $246 billion it projected the legislation would save Medicare can’t both finance new programs and help pay future expenses for elderly covered under the federal program.
Nor could those savings be used to extend the solvency of Medicare, set to run out of money in 2017, the budget office said in a letter to Senate Republicans. Bloomberg
The Democrats could have done this on purpose or it could be a mistake because no one has any idea what this bill contains. They just wanted to get something passed so they could claim a victory and go home. I am betting it was done on purpose with the hope that no one would notice because they like to use funny math in DC. The way they manage a budget would bankrupt any private business and land CEOs in jail.
Senator Sessions said it best:
“What we’ve seen is a colossal manipulation” by Democrats “of the accounting scores of CBO” and the independent actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, said Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, the Republican who requested the analysis from CBO. He called the letter “a potential game-changer.”
This would be a game changer if Democrats cared about costs. They have manipulated this entire process to give the impression that their overhaul saves money when it will, in fact, cost trillions of dollars, money we do not have.
The only thing I can see facing Democrats during their time off is a lot of grief from constituents who are fed up with the games being played.
We can’t really blame them too much though. They spent so much of our money buying votes (something that would land us in jail) that they needed to show savings someplace.
They just got caught this time…
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Tags: cbo, cost lies, fuzzy math, health care bill