Logout Edit Account
"Smoking Gun" CBO Memo Exposes Effort to Hide Cost of Obamacare
by Philip Klein
Hunter Biden Cashed In to Fuel His Drug and Sex Habits
by George Neumayr
Targeting People With Mental Illness and Dementia for Euthanasia
by Wesley J. Smith
A Red Wave Through the Bayou
by Scott McKay
Is Mass Immigration Killing Two-Party Democracy in the U.S.?
by James Delmont
Sign up to receive our latest updates!
Hot Off
Time to Decouple Defense Department and NASA from CCP-Tied Interests
by Paul Boardman
The Talkies
A Man Called Otto Is Worse Than the Original
by Bruce Bawer
Education Gone Wild
Ownership, Control, and Reform: Market-Based Approaches to Universities
by Richard K. Vedder
Political Hay
DOJ Has Double Standard on Classified Documents
by Jeffrey Lord
Chicago Public Schools Are Corrupt and Unsafe. School Choice Is the Only Solution.
by Chris Talgo
Cato's Michael Cannon has been arguing for months that Congressional Budget Office estimates have not been measuring the full price tag of Obamacare, because they aren't taking into account the private sector costs of components such as the insurance coverage mandate. Back in 1994, the CBO did include such costs in its estimates of the Clinton proposal — and such provisions accounted for 60 percent of the total cost of the legislation.
Today, Cannon points to a CBO memo that was released with little fanfare over the weekend, and calls it the "smoking gun" showing that there has been a concerted effort among Democrats to make sure the CBO does not start taking into account the cost of mandates and new regulations.
The memo concerned a proposal by Sen. Jay Rockefeller — reportedly part of the now defenct Medicare expansion "deal" reached last week — that would require insurance companies to spend 90 of the money collected in premiums on medical claims. Their conclusion was: "In CBO's view, this further expansion of the federal government's role in the health insurance market would make such insurance an essentially governmental program, so that all payments related to health insurance policies should be recorded as cash flows in the federal budget."
In other words, adopting such a measure would have forced the CBO to begin to measure the private sector costs of certain elements of the bill, making it unlikely to be adopted.
"The Medical Loss Ratios memo is the smoking gun," Cannon writes. "It shows that indeed, Democrats have been submitting proposals to the CBO behind closed doors and tailoring their private-sector mandates to avoid having those costs appear in the federal budget. Proposals that would result in a complete cost estimate — such as the proposal by Sen. Rockefeller discussed in the Medical Loss Ratios memo — are dropped. Because we can't let the public see how much this thing really costs."
It all reminds me of July 1, 1987 when President Ronald Reagan nominated Judge Robert Bork for an opening on the Supreme Court. He had it made in the shade, said my complacent conservative friends. The result was brutal. But we do not have to look back 32 years to see how unruly the leftwing mob can be. Recall the recent fate of Judge Brett Kavanaugh. Only his courage and unscotchable determinate saved him. The simple fact is that the conservatives are often slow on the draw against the American left. Only the Wall Street Journal and the intrepid New York Sun have come out swinging for Moore. It is time for the conservatives to rally around him. He can probably win with the President on his side. He apparently has the votes. Yet the coming battle would be a lot less bloody if the conservative movement were to take the field on Moore's behalf — and make it clear that from now on they are going to wage war for the President's nominees. Print
The Lingering Fog of War and Lessons From Vietnam
by Mark Moyar
With Americans across the political spectrum increasingly skeptical of massive...Read More
George Neumayr, RIP
by Wlady Pleszczynski
Late this morning, we received this dreadful news: "It is...Read More
The Right Prescription
Are Americans Still Capable of Self-Government?
by David Catron
In a 1789 letter to the British philosopher Richard Price,...Read More
Cultural Decline
Dead Names and Gender Dysphoria
by Debra J. Saunders
Amy says her daughter was 15 — and just broken...Read More
In Search of Wisdom
The Trumping of Benjamin Netanyahu
by Shmuel Klatzkin
Political foes of Israel's old/new Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seem...Read More
Hither and Yon
Georgia Should Crush Antifa Without Mercy
Let me state at the outset that my faith in...Read More
Sign up to receive our latest updates! Register
Select list(s) to subscribe to Active Subscribers
Example: Yes, I would like to receive emails from The American Spectator | USA News and Politics. (You can unsubscribe anytime)
By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: The American Spectator, 122 S Royal Street, Alexandria, VA, 22314, http://spectator.org. You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact
Be a Free Market Loving Patriot. Subscribe Today!