Video: Former CBO director says ObamaCare numbers don’t add up
posted at 9:15 am on August 4, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
At first, I was tempted to say, “So what?” We have the current CBO director saying exactly the same thing. Instead of having Douglas Elmendorf, though, Sean Hannity invited Doug Holtz-Eakin, who ran the CBO while the Republicans held the majority. Holtz-Eakin corroborates Elmendorf’s findings, and explains that ObamaCare exacerbates the problems facing the American medical system rather than solving them — especially debt:
Holtz-Eakin makes the point that deficit spending is the real killer facing the Medicare entitlement, and that further deficit spending won’t do anything but make the problem worse. Also, Holtz-Eakin tweaks the Obama administration for not “paying attention” to the CBO’s work since the beginning of the year. If the White House got taken by surprise by the CBO scoring that hit last month, they have no one but themselves to blame. Elmendorf and his team have published a constant stream of data outlining how they saw ObamaCare in its several variations, and all of the indicators showed a massive deficit in Decade One and worse in Decade 2.
As a former CBO director, Holtz-Eakin also emphasizes the inappropriate nature of the meeting between Obama and Elmendorf at the White House. The meeting looked like an attempt to influence and/or intimidate the CBO into producing more sympathetic analyses, Holtz=Eakin states, and blames the White House for even putting Elmendorf into the position of having to say yes to an invitation.
We now have the two CBO directors bookending former CBO director and now Obama budget director Peter Orszag. Obama and Orszag are looking more and more isolated on the notion that spending vast amounts of money will somehow lower the deficit.
Blowback
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Sorry OT:
The Boss just got off the Air here in St. Louis Jamie Allman, the Allman Show. Great interview.
broker1 on August 4, 2009 at 9:21 AM
Obamacare is one of the biggest deceptions to be forced on the American people in our history. The left is determined to undermine the foundations of our country in as short a period as possible. If the American people ever wake up. this administration will become the eunuch it is destined to become.
volsense on August 4, 2009 at 9:21 AM
Socialism doesn’t add up.
davidk on August 4, 2009 at 9:22 AM
More ammunition for townhall meetings. If they happen at all they will work better with these types of facts then loud chants. Chants should be saved for when the meeting is over.
Cindy Munford on August 4, 2009 at 9:22 AM
Ahhhh, errrr, uhhhh…. Distractions, that’s all these facts are—-DISTRACTIONS!!!! I wish the Republicans would quit with these scare tactics!!! Holtz-Eakin, MUST be a Health Insurance crony!!!
/sarc
You guys think I hit all the main DNC/Nutroot talking points????
Delaware Vol on August 4, 2009 at 9:23 AM
reality/truth is the strongest opponent of the obama administration.
weewilly on August 4, 2009 at 9:25 AM
At what point are pundits going to question if this isn’t exactly what Obama and his staff of ultra Liberals are after? Bring American’s to their knees in an all out effort to gain ultimate power over the people.
This guy sides with the Mullah’s of Iran when he had an opportunity to side with the people of Iran & Democracy. Same applies in Honduras. Buddy boy with Chavez. One must wonder.
Keemo on August 4, 2009 at 9:25 AM
Just telling it like it is
____________________________________
the inappropriate nature of the meeting between Obama and Elmendorf at the White House.
cmsinaz on August 4, 2009 at 9:26 AM
Agreed. Facts should be discussed in a calm tone. The left have proven that they cannot argue facts. If people matter of factly asked representatives about issues in the bill it would scare them to death.
HoustonRight on August 4, 2009 at 9:26 AM
The only way spending money erases a deficit is if you sell the American peopla a huge tax increase as the price for the wonderful medical system you are going to provide.
But we already know that the system is not going to be that wonderful, and the tax increase, no matter how huge, is just the down payment.
gridlock2 on August 4, 2009 at 9:30 AM
Team Obama is not interested in formulating economic policy that promotes private sector growth. It is all about reordering the economy as the end result of ideology. As long as the ideology is put in place, without regard for the economy, they will consider themselves successful.
ICBM on August 4, 2009 at 9:33 AM
You missed two: “My administration inherited this mess.” And, “It’s all Bush’s fault.”
Barb Dwyer on August 4, 2009 at 9:34 AM
Obama will get his single payer system alot soon than even he expects. Once this thing is passed enrollment will go throught the roof. The rationale being if it’s already here and I can save this much money then I might as well enroll.
Insurance companies will have to take premiums up even higher not for profit but to stay solvent. The system will not be ready for this just like the cash for clunkers fiasco and we will see a crisis not yet experienced in our history. It will make the movie John Q look like a best case scenario.
HoustonRight on August 4, 2009 at 9:37 AM
The Great American Flim-Flam, widescreen, dolby surround sound, rated ‘C’, for criminal. Please turn off your cell phones before the show begins.
OT: Had to pick this up from BBC. It wasn’t on American networks this morning:
Obama Cyber-Czar resigns.
Limerick on August 4, 2009 at 9:40 AM
Obama is no different than the street thugs that support him. All this economic stuff gives Obama a headache. Obama is acting like an African dictator. Africa still suffers under the same mental attitude that Obama has. I guess Obama wants to re-invent America into a 3rd world African nationstate.
izoneguy on August 4, 2009 at 9:41 AM
Six months into the job is way too early for the “personal reasons” thing. Wonder what the real story is.
highhopes on August 4, 2009 at 9:44 AM
The CBO is a GOVERNMENT agency. How could it be wrong?
Mojave Mark on August 4, 2009 at 9:45 AM
Obama will ignore the CBOs just like he did during the campaign when economists put out an ad in the paper saying his budget plans wouldn’t work and how Gore ignores the scientists that say GW isn’t based on solid science.
Only way to defeat Obamacare is to go after Congressional members and make them feel (since their into feelings) the anger.
journeyintothewhirlwind on August 4, 2009 at 9:46 AM
Exactly. Get the socialism in place so the real looting of America can begin.
highhopes on August 4, 2009 at 9:46 AM
HoustonRight on August 4, 2009 at 9:37 AM
Scary thought. How many people do you have going to DC in your convoy?
TXMomof3 on August 4, 2009 at 9:48 AM
So far about 15 people or 6 vehicles whichever you prefer to count.
HoustonRight on August 4, 2009 at 9:50 AM
The facts are that this administration is incapable of the truth. It has to be disheartening to the young voters who swallowed the Obama swill of hope and change. The change has been the most corrupt administration in our history. Czars are running the government and the damage they are causing will not be known until it is too late.
volsense on August 4, 2009 at 9:51 AM
Make them feel the anger. Make them taste the anger. Make them live the anger to the point that all these town halls are like the one Specter just had. Congress gets a month’s vacation in August but this isn’t the time to let up on the pressure it is the time to double down when these criminals of our grandkids’ futures are easier to reach out and touch.
highhopes on August 4, 2009 at 9:52 AM
I agree that Obama’s administration could not sincerely have been surprised. The numbers and projections are one thing that they have that none of us have. They simply ignored the numbers.
At first, I though they were trying to really manage the reactions. People were frightened enough with the meltdown. There’s no need to set off panic.
Then, with healthcare, I wasn’t so sure it wasn’t just a case of hoping that the numbers would be better.
AnninCA on August 4, 2009 at 9:56 AM
Not to distract but to compliment this post, Ed, Powerline had a post about a Boschwitz-Penny article at IBD wherein they summarize the history of underestimating future costs of programs by the Feds.
The numbers never add up and the future costs always explode way beyond any estimate.
Dusty on August 4, 2009 at 9:56 AM
I disagree with you that the young voters have yet abandoned the filthy liar in the White House. They stand the most to gain because they have the least to lose under the socialist schemes put foward by the current regime. Also they have no point of reference to understand just how much of a despot and criminal the filthy liar is and just how evil all this is.
They will be bitter but that is when they realize the results of all this “hope and change” but for now they are uncritical followers of the filthy lying dictator and his regime.
highhopes on August 4, 2009 at 9:56 AM
The government cannot run anything without creating a financial disaster. Medicare, Medicaid, Cash for Clunkers, Social Security, Post Office, you name it, they screw it up royally. If something would cost $10 they will knock themselves out to find a way to pay $50 for it. Whatever the problem is with healthcare/insurance right now, it is sure to be quadrupled under government watch/control. It is guaranteed. So you’re paying too much now, huh? Well, you will pay three or four times that and get no treatment. That sounds plausible. Yeh, that’s the ticket.
NJ Red on August 4, 2009 at 9:57 AM
You know, Obama may end up uniting us after all!
exhelodrvr on August 4, 2009 at 9:57 AM
Darn, here’s the link.
Dusty on August 4, 2009 at 9:57 AM
I’m the Boss and my guys don’t recall me ever being in St. Louis.
Bishop on August 4, 2009 at 9:57 AM
If you’re on an employer plan and being subsidized by your company, I can’t imagine that the public option will be much cheaper and definitely not as nice of a plan. If you’re paying COBRA because you’re unemployed, you bet you’ll join. Or if you’re into one of the plans that’s really house insurance? Yes.
AnninCA on August 4, 2009 at 9:58 AM
Hope is no substitute for a plan. If the filthy liar in the White House cannot prove how to pay for his scheme then the whole idea should be scrapped until he can justify the expense. Most importantly the rat bastard traitor and those that support his scheme need to be honest if tax increases are going to be part of the financing mechanism.
Let the public decide on this issue on the basis of real information instead of the crap being put out by supporters of this very bad idea.
highhopes on August 4, 2009 at 9:59 AM
It takes not one but two CBO directors to come to the conclusion that spending more money and borrowing more money does not work to get out of debt?
Wow! Just wow!
I never knew that.
Seriously, if you look at all those wonderful Obama/Pelosi/Reid
billsscams that had to be rammed through immediately because the danger was so close and the nation was on the verge of dissolving overnight, well, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that all of this is the same scam run by sleazy used car dealers all across the nation for decades and decades…gotta buy it now, today, right now, because the same offer will not be available tomorrow or even by close of business today…and good parents taught their kids to run like hell from anyone who tries to pull that sort of crap.Well..kids…time to run away from this Obamacare…kill it, destroy it…and make damn sure that any and all connected with trying to force this Obamanation on all of us never ever are allowed to hold elected or appointed public office ever again.
We might not be able to jail the crooks…but sentencing them to a lifetime of ignominy away from the public eye for the rest of their lives…seems appropriate punishment.
So…the 2010 election cycle has started…what are we going to do about it?
coldwarrior on August 4, 2009 at 10:00 AM
Conservatives bring the tar, liberals bring the feathers.
highhopes on August 4, 2009 at 10:01 AM
In ways He, and Ayers, Axelrod and Emanuel and all the rest never imagined.
Torches? Check.
Pitchforks? Check?
Guts and determination? Check.
Well…let’s unite.
coldwarrior on August 4, 2009 at 10:03 AM
I don’t think the feckless leader cares anything about cost, he wants control. If he cared about a deficit or excessive spending then he wouldn’t have shoved the boondoggle called the stimulus plan down our throats. The man truly is a joker. He appears to be anti-everything America stands for. I wonder if he could pass an exam about the US Constitution?
scalleywag on August 4, 2009 at 10:11 AM
Exile island…
ladyingray on August 4, 2009 at 10:17 AM
I agree 100%
larvcom on August 4, 2009 at 10:17 AM
If you support O’crap care you have to believe:
That existing government Healthcare systems are Bad enough to need reform, but Good enough to prove government can run healthcare while at the same time unable to cover the uninsured.
That Healthcare is a right that at the same time can be rationed at will by the government.
That – unlike every other thing government touches – it won’t screw this up.
That spending money will save money.
Chainsaw56 on August 4, 2009 at 10:18 AM
You are oh so correct. The problem being is that by the time the bitterness sets in it will be too late to correct it.
chemman on August 4, 2009 at 10:21 AM
Heh…that’s a pretty good summation of the mantra we should be repeating to the Obamanauts.
Goodeye_Closed on August 4, 2009 at 10:24 AM
We don’t even have to go that far – What would happen if the achievers simply decided to go on strike?
Chainsaw56 on August 4, 2009 at 10:25 AM
The problem with our health care system is Medicare because it is too expensive.
Nothing that they are proposing will do anything to reduce the costs of health care. In fact most of their proposals will increase the cost.
If you give people more insurance with better benefits, they will utilize it more. The politicians in congress see the amount of premiums that insurance companies pay in, but they don’t seem to be able to see the massive liabilities that these companies take on.
Just because you give someone insurance doesn’t mean that their health care costs will decrease. If you allow people to be insured for pre-existing conditions (as most company plans already do) you are going to increase the cost.
If you force benefits to include lower copayments and lower deductibles, you are going to increase the cost of health care. Lower deductibles and copayments will encourage people to consume more so it will cost more. The more distant people are from the cost of something, the more likely they are to over use it.
This is why taxes are a good detriment. People quit smoking because it costs them more. If you subsidized smoking and lowered the cost, more people would smoke. It is pretty simple economics.
It is scary that the administration is selling this bill of goods that will do a lot of damage to the economic health of this country.
ThackerAgency on August 4, 2009 at 10:27 AM
Star light, star bright….
journeyintothewhirlwind on August 4, 2009 at 10:38 AM
Numbers don’t add up?
That is a racist claim.
seven on August 4, 2009 at 10:45 AM
The numbers never add up b/c the current administration flunked math!
Budget neutral….LMAO
Clowns – All of them…….
BigMike252 on August 4, 2009 at 11:35 AM
History keeps repeating itself: Government programs never meet their budgets! Government programs always cost 3 to 10 times the original optimistic “estimate.”
Government programs always exceed their budgets!
ExpressoBold on August 4, 2009 at 1:18 PM
Up is down.
The quick passage of the stimulus will cap unemployment at 8%.
Left is right.
We have to spend money to not go broke.
Black is white.
The Ministry of Truth has arrived.
jukin on August 4, 2009 at 3:40 PM