A Man Walked into a Bar

[babylonsister]

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2010/3/18/121329/425

A Man Walked into a Bar

by BooMan
Thu Mar 18th, 2010 at 12:13:29 PM EST


If you walk into a bar and tell someone that we can spend a trillion dollars and cover thirty million uninsured Americans and the effect on the budget will be to save $1.3 trillion over the next twenty years, you'll probably get told that you're crazy, But that's exactly what the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says the health care bill will do. According to DCCC chair, Rep. Chris Van Hollen, those numbers mean that the health care bill is the biggest deficit reduction bill since Bill Clinton's 1993 Economic Plan. That bill, known as the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, didn't win a single Republican vote in the House or the Senate. In fact, the Senate vote was 50-50 and vice-president Al Gore cast the deciding vote. Notice, also, that it was a budget reconciliation bill, which is why it could pass with only 51 votes.

The people you meet in that bar might not believe that Bill Clinton and Barack Obama are the two presidents to enact major budget reduction legislation, or that the Democrats have a good record on budgets while, despite their rhetoric and branding, the Republicans have a disastrous record. They might not believe the CBO numbers because they can't imagine that it will save money to pay out hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies to the uninsured. But that is how screwed our health care system is. And that's why it's so important that we reform it.

[JTFrog]

1. K&R

[eridani]

2. The savings come right out of the hides of people who aren't poor enough for Medicaid.

I don't give a flying fuck if the government saves money by forcing all of us to pay more and more for less and less actual care. Really I don't.

[zbdent]

3. the same people who denounce the "preventative measures" aspect

of this bill and claim that "you can't put a number on the savings" probably also support the idea that Bush's torture policies have prevented thousands, if not millions, of terrorist plots realizing fruition ...

[pampango]

4. Great post. And I love that progressives in congress vote for and Blue Dogs and repubs vote against

the HCR bill. :)

[Clio the Leo]

5. kick NT

[Supersedeas]

6. WHY oh Why oh why can't the National Television Media disseminate these FACTS

We get Death Panel and Abortion Lies instead of FACTS. I guess 'news' anchors have to offset facts with untruths and propoganda in order to be balanced.

[merkins]

7. Two dyslexics walk into a bra ...

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2010/03/19/fact-sheet-the-truth-about-the-health-care-bill/">Punchline