Free Money

OK, some days you think I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer. I'll admit that there are a lot of things that I don't understand, but this item really confuses me. How can something that is going to cost $829 BILLION be deficit neutral? How can you spend nearly a trillion dollars and not have it impact the budget?

CBO Report Shows Health Bill Fulfills Messiah Promise

Is that not real money? Where does it come from? What sort of legerdemain does it take to get that pile of cash to then provide more and better health care for more people at no cost? Is He really keeping his promise?

Oh, here's a tidbit:

Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the senior Republican on the Finance Committee, said he was worried that insurers and other health care companies would pass the cost of new fees and taxes on to consumers.

Do ya think? Government is going to "give" to us by charging insurers and healthcare companies! And someone honestly thinks that they will simply carve out a pound or so of flesh and smile? Of course it will be passed to consumers.

But, Grassley goes on:

And he said the bill's expansion of Medicaid would leave a new set of "unfunded mandates" for states already struggling with record budget deficits.

If the federal government spends the state's money, does it not still come from tax-payers pockets? And, by the way, how are those states doing, budget-wise?

Here is some real fiscal magic:

The $829 billion price tag would be more than offset by reducing spending on Medicare and other federal health programs by about $400 billion over the next decade, and by imposing a series of fees on insurance companies, drug makers, medical device manufacturers and other sectors of the health industry that stand to gain millions of new customers under the legislation.

My math is a bit out-dated but how is $829 billion "more than offset" by $400 billion? I'm not a business major either, but if you facilitate "new customers" but impose a "series of fees" on insurance providers, drug makers, medical device builders and "other sectors" the profits are absorbed by, you guessed it, the federal bureaucracy. Amazing!

And, here's a neat little economic stimulus plan for the recession:

In addition, the package would raise another $200 billion by levying a 40 percent excise tax on high-cost insurance policies – the so-called Cadillac plans that cost more than $8,000 for individuals or $21,000 for a family.

Who is going to evaluate how much your healthcare plan is worth? It won't be you or your employer. And, don't you just love a 40% excise tax? What a second, aren't these going to be a lot of those 95% of American wage earners who won't see their taxes go up? There's that math thing again...an $8,000 healthcare plan is going to nail me for an additional $3200 a year making the net cost to me and my employer $11,200. That should encourage a lot of companies to produce more and better benefit packages shouldn't it? How's that looking to the United Auto Workers now?

Somewhere there is a huge constituency of really ignorant people who are going to suck this up big time. Oh yeah, what a bargain!