Posted on 07/28/2009 8:45:48 AM PDT by La Lydia
President Obama and his Democratic allies, scrambling to broker a health care deal Monday, finally got an upbeat assessment from Congress' official scorekeeper when it said the plan for government-run coverage would not force out private insurers. House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer trumpeted the report from the Congressional Budget Office, Congress' nonpartisan budget analyst, that said private insurers could survive competition from a government health insurance option - contradicting a chief criticism from Republicans...Republicans touted a report from theLewin Group, a health research firm owned by an insurance company, that predicted 100 million people out of the 160 million now covered by employer-sponsored insurance would go to the government coverage.
But the CBO (now) estimates about 12 million people would opt for the public plan. The wide difference in estimates is the result of drastically different assumptions about the price of the plans. CBO estimated the public plan would cost 10 percent less than private plans, compared with the Lewin Group estimate that it would be 20 percent cheaper.
The CBO has been a source of partisan angst...with recent reports undermining the Democrats' plans by determining they would not cut costs and result in unsustainable growth in government spending.
That verdict helped cement resistance from the conservative Blue Dog Democrats...and bolstered Republican criticism that the country can't afford the $1 trillion price tag.
It also prompted Mr. Obama last week to summon CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf to a White House meeting - a somewhat unusual move that Republicans warned smelled of playing politics with a nonpartisan entity.
The CBO report, which also found that the employer requirement to provide insurance would cover 12 million new people, comes as Democrats try to push the bill through the Energy and Commerce Committee and to the full House floor...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
LOL....
One is being touted as FREE the other costs... How long can you sustain paying for the FREE care through tax increases and paying for your own paid care out of pocket?
The logic of FREE means that Private sector will be destroyed there is no compromise on this obviously you could argue that it the Insurance industry dropped its prices to free then they could compete with the govt...
LOL
Idiots in DC LIES< LIES< LIES< LIES<
Seems to coincide with a recent discussion between zero and the CBO. Must have received an offer they couldn’t refuse.
If this isn’t clear evidence of the sort of thugs that occupy the Executive Branch, then nothing is.
Just a little tit-for-tat The Chicago Way!
‘By the way you have a very lovely daughter, I am surprised that you let her rent that apartment in Georgetown on her own. It would be a shame if anything where to happen to her.’
You can’t. This stinks of intimidation and coercion!
and I don't buy it for a second that a public plan wouldn't force out private insurers...total BS if you ask me.
My my aren’t we suspicious...
/sar
It’s called Chicago politics.
The Chicago mafia had a “talk” with the CBO. Its been straightened out.
This is an outright LIE by the CBO and I’ll guarantee they know it. Looks like Hussein’s little one-on-one with the CBO head paid off, huh!
Riiight,,,this after Obamao and the head of the CBO had a Godfather II Moe Green casino buyout chat..
It's all the years of misrepresentation on the part of those sworn to uphold the Constitution, protect us and serve us who kept telling us 4+4=5 when we kept counting it up on our fingers and couldn't come up with more than 4. Sad, sad, sad. Shame, shame, shame.
Ok, hang on. There was the first CBO report that was negative, then there was the meeting at the White Horse (nod to Armageddon), then there was a SECOND negative report after that meeting and now a positive one? Just want to be sure I have that right. If I do, what has changed between the second negative report and this third one?
Is the CBO having a I-was-against-it-before-I-was-for-it moment?
I think most of us can conclude that when BO met with CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf, Mr. Elmendorf was threatened, told he would lose his job if he didn’t change his tune (because Congressional Democrats control his appointment), and, in general, given a shake-down. What gets me the most is that BO & cohorts were to damn blatant about it. Summon the guy, threaten him, and then applaud his “new” report. How dumb do they think we are? And they must think we have both short- and long-term memory problems.
You have grasped the main gist of this. But CBO wasn’t having a I-was-against-it-before-I-was-for-it moment, the CBO director was having a “save my job because it’s being threatened by the President of the United States” moment.
And in one fell swoop, BO has undermined the credibility and integrity of the CBO, by the way.
He has a tendency to do that (the Chicago way!). I was wondering last night if there’s a certain “mark” anywhere on his scalp. I know - tin foil time but, hey, the way things are going...
Wonder if the head of the CBO is going to enjoy his new summer home this year...
I feel like I now live in a South American dictatorship.
The most tyrannical administration in US history “wins” again.
I just e-mailed the CBO and told them they should shut their doors permanently. They sabotaged all their future credibility with this newest report.
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