- Feb 12, 2007
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The U.S. was conned by budget gimmickry led by Peter Orszag. Once the gimmicks are removed, ObamaCare will add $500B to the deficit during it's first 10 years (and that is with only 6 years of benefits).
In addition, the baseline budget itself has been distorted with gimmicks in order to conceal the magnitude of proposed spending increases.
...After initial drafts of the law proved far too expensive, ObamaCares authors knew they had to meet two criteria: Keep total spending for the first decade below a trillion dollars, and make sure the Congressional Budget Office reports the law will reduce the deficit.
The White House and its allies in Congress succeeded, but only by piling on the gimmicks. So, for example, in order to keep the total first-decade cost down, ObamaCare delayed the bulk of the spending in the bill until 2014 meaning that the 2010-2019 10-year score only accounted for six years of spending.
The official estimates also conveniently omitted hundreds of billions in additional spending that will be necessary to implement the law. According to an estimate by former CBO director Douglas Holtz-Eakin, running ObamaCare will eventually require $274 billion in extra spending.
Indeed, in a paper published in the June issue of the journal Health Affairs, Holtz-Eakin estimated that, once all the budget gimmickry is removed, the law will increase the deficit by more than half a trillion dollars and thats just in the first 10 years.
Under Orszags watch, budget gimmicks became a way of life for the Obama White House. Both he and Obama may want to pretend their budget numbers tell the truth, but at this point, its tough to see their constant fiscal fakery as anything other than a long exercise in make believe.
A legacy of budget trickery - NYPOST.com
In addition, the baseline budget itself has been distorted with gimmicks in order to conceal the magnitude of proposed spending increases.
...After initial drafts of the law proved far too expensive, ObamaCares authors knew they had to meet two criteria: Keep total spending for the first decade below a trillion dollars, and make sure the Congressional Budget Office reports the law will reduce the deficit.
The White House and its allies in Congress succeeded, but only by piling on the gimmicks. So, for example, in order to keep the total first-decade cost down, ObamaCare delayed the bulk of the spending in the bill until 2014 meaning that the 2010-2019 10-year score only accounted for six years of spending.
The official estimates also conveniently omitted hundreds of billions in additional spending that will be necessary to implement the law. According to an estimate by former CBO director Douglas Holtz-Eakin, running ObamaCare will eventually require $274 billion in extra spending.
Indeed, in a paper published in the June issue of the journal Health Affairs, Holtz-Eakin estimated that, once all the budget gimmickry is removed, the law will increase the deficit by more than half a trillion dollars and thats just in the first 10 years.
Under Orszags watch, budget gimmicks became a way of life for the Obama White House. Both he and Obama may want to pretend their budget numbers tell the truth, but at this point, its tough to see their constant fiscal fakery as anything other than a long exercise in make believe.
A legacy of budget trickery - NYPOST.com