To: i-node who wrote (537639 ) 12/20/2009 1:27:06 PM From: tejek 1 Recommendation Read Replies (2) | Respond to CBO SCORE VS. PRICE.... Yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office released its score on the Senate health care proposal, and Republicans hoping for a negative report were left empty-handed. The Democratic plan, the CBO found, would cost $871 billion over the next 10 years and cover 31 million more Americans. It's also one of the biggest deficit-reduction proposals in recent history, reducing the deficit by $132 billion in the first decade, and about $1 trillion in the decade after that. John Cole lamented the fact that "so many deeply stupid people are serving in Congress." Spending in health care is going to increase no matter what happens. It is going to increase at a completely unsustainable rate if we do nothing. Which is why we've been talking about reforming health care for the last couple of decades, and precisely why we've been talking about it intently for the last two. It is why we have been talking about "getting health care costs under control" for years. It is why Republicans, for all my lifetime, have been screaming that Medicaid and Medicare are going to bankrupt us- that is, until a couple of weeks ago when in an act of sheer political cynicism, the RNC and the Republicans decided to guarantee unlimited and unchecked Medicare benefits forever. It is almost like these Republicans are so damned stupid they have no idea what the hell we are even debating. How are they supposed to have a coherent response or be constructive participants if they can't even figure out the debate?
