Baucus: Lawmakers $320 billion short for health care plan (BS! More like $2 trillion short)

cnn ^ | 7/9/2009 | cnn

[tobyhill]

After huddling Wednesday with Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee, Chairman Max Baucus told reporters that lawmakers still need to come up with $320 billion over the coming decade in taxes to pay for the health care plan. The remaining cost of the bill would be paid for through savings in Medicare, Medicaid and other programs.

All options for raising taxes remain on the table, the Montana Democrat said, including taxing employer-provided health benefits, though that provision appears to lack significant Democratic support.

Sen. Kent Conrad, D-North Dakota, who has been involved in negotiations on the bill, said senators are talking about raising the tax exemption on those benefits to $25,000 for a family.

Raising that exemption level is aimed at softening Democratic criticism of the proposal because it means only people with high-value health benefits -- so-called Cadillac plans -- would have to pay the new tax.

Doing so would raise $90 billion over 10 years, Conrad said, leaving negotiators $230 billion to raise through other taxes. Conrad and Baucus wouldn't specify which additional tax hikes are gaining favor among lawmakers but said everything -- from raising taxes on sugary drinks and alcohol to a surtax on the wealthy -- remains on the table.

[Oldpuppymax]

The remaining cost of the bill would be paid for through savings in Medicare, Medicaid and other programs.

Yeah. One thing democrats are good at, it’s SAVING TAXDOLLARS!!!

And 320 billion short? For what...the first 6 months?

[KarlInOhio]

The remaining cost of the bill would be paid for through savings in Medicare(shifting costs to those patients who pay), Medicaid (also shifting costs to those patients who pay) and other programs(likely also shifting costs to those patients who pay, or else a code word for taxes).

[cranked]

$320 billion, that is all?
Remove the frakin pork and payouts....

Opps, wait, as already indicated, the costs of this program far exceed what these lying bastards are claiming is the ‘actual’ costs.....

[LearsFool]

It’s a very old sales ploy:

“If we can get the payments where you want them, will you drive this car home today?”

“If we can come up with the $320,000,000,000, will you agree to this healthcare plan?”

Well, my objections to their liberty-eating, property-stealing, medical-care-rationing, power-grabbing, socialist tyranny will not be overcome by a simple number-juggling salesman’s trick.

[rawhide]

They are only short an estimated 320 million. The true figure will be countless times that. The main thing they are trying to accomplish is to get this health-care legislation passed now, and worry about how to really pay for it later. The democrats do not give a damn about what happens later!!!

[rawhide]

320 million should be 320 billion

[mo]

The lowest BS number they could fudge up....