ObamaCare: Can You Say ‘Trillions?’

Katy Grimes: The Congressional Budget Office reported this week that the total cost of ObamaCare will be more than $1.7 trillion over a decade – double the original White House estimates of $940 billion over 10 years.

Don’t look for this information in your newspaper unless you are a subscriber of the Wall Street Journal… But wait… I couldn’t find the story in the WSJ print version either.

This news wasn’t in my Thursday editions of the Sacramento Bee, or the Los Angeles Times. But the news was out before Thursday print deadlines.

The Washington Examiner broke the story Tuesday. I caught a news story about the CBO report last evening on FOX News. But when I went searching for details online, stories were few.

I finally found a story by FOX business journalist Lou Dobbs, posted 20 hours ago, who linked to another story on Forbes.com. Catholic Online, and NewsMax also had stories. But that was it, other than blogs and financial websites.

The White House blog had its own unique spin. While Dobbs’ headline was, “CBO Report Shows Obamacare Costs Nearly Double: $1.7 Trillion,” the White House blog headline stated, “CBO Update Shows Lower Costs for the New Health Care Law.”

No amount of spin can cover up that ObamaCare will cost $1.76 trillion over a decade, according to the CBO’s new projection, rather than the $940 billion forecast when it was signed into law.

Add six more zeros to the million dollar bill for $1 trillion. (Here is what $1 trillion looks like…)

In addition to the much higher cost, the CBO also estimated that the health coverage in the ObamaCare plan will be less comprehensive than originally promised, and that two million fewer people will now be covered under the new law.

The shuck-and-jive originally produced by the White House counted only six years of health plan implementation in order to show a cost of less than $1 trillion. They did this to get Congress to pass the bill. The new, more thorough 10-year projections cover nine years of ObamaCare implementation.

Many are saying that  more accurate estimates of the cost of ObamaCare will be more than $2 trillion over 10 years – not even close to the the $940 billion that President Obama promised Americans and lawmakers.

“Again, the bottom line is clear: the Affordable Care Act will reduce our deficit, control health care costs, and make health care more affordable,” stated the White House blog.

Doesn’t it sound as if CARB is implementing ObamaCare? The California Air Resources Board’s AB 32 implementation has just as many half-truths, obfuscations and disinformation.

The “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” will not protect patients, nor will it be affordable.

This is your government, and these are your tax dollars.

MAR. 15, 2012