More evidence Obamacare is a nightmare for taxpayers

In October, the Obama administration acknowledged that the portion of Obamacare that contributed the most deficit “reduction” — the CLASS Act, which created a new long-term care entitlement and allegedly was going to reduce deficits by $86 billion between 2012 and 2021 — was unworkable. The House this month voted to repeal the law, while the White House seeks a way to fix it. But the clear bottom line was that more than two-thirds of the $124 billion in promised deficit “savings” during these 10 years was unlikely ever to materialize.

Now, President Obama’s new budget finishes off the always-ludicrous notion that he could create a new, $1 trillion-a-decade entitlement and somehow reduce deficits. Avik Roy reports at Forbes:

The White House’s fiscal year 2013 budget adds $111 billion in exchange spending between 2014 and 2021, with even more spending to come in future years. … In 2021 alone, the difference between the two budgets is almost $20 billion, implying that exchange spending will be up by over $200 billion in the decade following 2021.

For the math-challenged: Subtracting $86 billion and $111 billion from an alleged deficit reduction of $124 billion equals a deficit increase of $73 billion. And this is the best-case scenario, as Roy goes on to explain:

If businesses do what the new health law clearly incentivizes them to do, exchange spending could be up by over $2 trillion in the decade following 2021.

The incentive to which Roy refers is the fact that Obamacare makes it relatively cheaper for employers to dump their health coverage, pay a fine and let employees use federal subsidies to buy health insurance in the federally mandated exchanges.

The costs for the most reckless piece of federal law in at least a generation only continue to rise, just as all of us who opposed Obamacare predicted. And the forecasts are only going to get worse with each passing year, if only because we are now burning through the years when Obamacare front-loaded new tax revenues before really adding new spending; that was another of the budgetary ruses Democrats used to create the fiction that Obamacare was fiscally responsible.

It is increasingly clear that taking the law completely off the books is the only way to avoid a true fiscal catastrophe.

– By Kyle Wingfield

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296 comments Add your comment

Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)

March 5th, 2012
7:49 pm

Pizzaman: 28 states already require what the administration, cover birth control, has ordered. And yes GA is one of the 28
————————————

Wrong. Georgia doesn’t violate the First Amendment’s separation of church and state by requiring churches to provide contraception, abortifacients, or sterilization, in violation of their religious beliefs.

Tiberius - Your lightning rod of hate!

March 5th, 2012
7:54 pm

“No President Can repeal any law. Congress has to do it. So if a Republican wins they also have to have Congress to do anything.”

That’s not entirely true, Pizzaman. The President has the power of Executive Orders, which can go a long way towards nullifying the more onerous parts of any law. In addition, the President can simply refuse to fund any portion of a law he doesn’t wish to fund, and Congress has to override a veto if they try to put that funding back in. So there are repeals, and there are repeals.

“The main parts of the new health care bill don’t take affect till 2014. So all the Republican …. about how much it’s costing now is just that …. . And IF your payment to your company’s provided health benefit has increased in the last few years it has nothing to do with any Federal Law.”

Not true at all, Pizzaman. Mandated coverage for kids until they’re out of college started immediately. Most plans increased their costs accordingly. Our county alone had to pay another $1 million a year just to satisfy that mandate.

“Most health care is still unregulated hence all the arguments including the birth control one.”

Not even close, Pizzaman.

“Oh yea one more. 28 states already require what the administration, cover birth control, has ordered. And yes GA is one of the 28. How come Kyle and the rest of you redneckrepublicans haven’t bitched about your state and the republicans how mandated what your bitching about???”

While I am not a redneck, nor a Republican, I have been complaining about state mandates on insurance for over a decade, Pizzaman.

Tiberius - Your lightning rod of hate!

March 5th, 2012
7:55 pm

ragnar, I don’t know about you, but I feel I’m in pretty good company with you in MarkV’s doghouse. :D

Michael H. Smith

March 5th, 2012
8:07 pm

…“free” medicines, Linda? C’mon we both know better than “free” as in it cost nobody nothing, as to why I wrote “free of charge” which doesn’t mean “free of costs”. Publix recoups their costs of providing this to the public when we buy groceries from them or as part of some program that once again we consumers pay for in some way no doubt.

But I don’t mind this kind of thing(or the birth control pills given out at health depts. at no charge – $3,000 give me a break :lol: ).

We’ve all seen really though times in our lives, I’m sure you can agree, others may be twixt and ‘tween that rock and a hard place who need those “free of charge” drugs: Especially elderly people on really low fixed incomes that don’t have the money to pay for 20 caps of drug like Amoxicillin or monthly BP meds like Lisinopril. But if you insist, Walmart/ Sams and Kroger too I believe, have a prescription drug plan with a huge list of generic drugs for a cost of only $4.

I hope you and I both will always be able to continue to pay for our medicines. But having seen what some drugs cost Linda, I’d feel more comfortable not talking too loudly and I don’t mind taking a good deal when it is offered, “free of charge”.

Linda

March 5th, 2012
8:20 pm

MarkV@6:39, I predicted to my husband that you would have at least a 2 inch response from my comment. I was wrong. It’s 8 1/2 inches long. I measured it. I evidently hit a multitude of your nerves. Bless your heart & all your other organs!

I’m the “prominent conservative woman on this blog?” Why, thank you, MarkV! My husband is SO proud & my parents would be so proud, also!

The liberal outrage over Limbaugh’s comments are biased & stupid. The left wing media has blasted conservatives in every way with far more disgusting words & phases, for years. Didn’t Ed Shultz call Ingraham a “right-wing sl@#? Didn’t Bill Maher call Palin a c@#$? Kristen Powers, a Democrat, is outraged over the liberals’ hypocrasy.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/03/04/rush-limbaugh-s-apology-liberal-men-need-to-follow-suit.html

I was called the same thing Sunday on Kyle’s blog, multiple times, that Limbaugh called that woman, & you never defended me, & when I brought it to your attention, you said you didn’t notice. Even after I asked for your defence, you never defended me, as a lady, & now you are telling me I’ve failed the test as a lady, & you accuse me of having no decency?

If Kyle had a poll on a Friday & asked what “regular” on this blog was the most insulting, you would win the prize by a huge majority.

@@

March 5th, 2012
8:22 pm

“It’s discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.”–Noel Coward

Still no Hillbilly?

I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...

March 5th, 2012
8:42 pm

My God, the liberals make me sick-

Dachau survivor meets liberator – Greenbaum, 87, and Gross, 83, don’t think they met that day in Dachau but nevertheless share a bond. – Urinal

Need some Jewish votes, you National Socialist pukes?

@@

March 5th, 2012
9:02 pm

Upon Andrew Breitbart’s death, this comment was left at a CNN blog.

One less jewbag, more to go

Typical left-wing comment. LIMBAUGH crossed the line!!??!!

A transcript from his program:

Against my own instincts, against my own knowledge, against everything I know to be right and wrong I descended to their level when I used those two words to describe Sandra Fluke. That was my error. I became like them, and I feel very badly about that.

BINGO!

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2012/03/05/why_i_apologized_to_sandra_fluke

The left continues to call Sarah Palin a media wh*re. Ms. Fluke is STILL out there complaining (The View). What does that make Ms. Fluke?

Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)

March 5th, 2012
9:16 pm

Who fluking knows?

Linda

March 5th, 2012
9:28 pm

What is the relationship that MarkV has with Fluke?

I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...

March 5th, 2012
9:32 pm

I have to give al Qaeda and other assorted anti Semites credit here, at least they are honest about their feelings towards the Jews, no matter how close it is to election day.

You liberals have descended to depths unknown by any other sicko that has existed before you.

Pizzaman

March 5th, 2012
9:33 pm

Tiberius @ 7;45P

You made some points but:

Only Congress can fund and/or repeal. An EO may change how the Law is enforced but it still has to be enforced. IF a President were to try to not enforce a law he/she “should” be impeached. And YES all those “signing” statements by Bush, Jr., and any other President for that matter, are unconstitutional and an impeachable offence. Congress has no balls!

The only parts of the new health care law now in affect are the “pre-existing” mandate for children and the, how did you call it “until they’re out of college”. I don’t think anyone can disagree with covering children but you never know. The “out of college” mandate is only a one year addition. Till the new bill it was 25, now it’s 26. The other requirements are still in college and “dependant” on the parents. In BOTH cases the cost has been born by the insurance companies and the policy holder. NO Federal new money till 2014.

As far as I know, and I participate in 2 of these, only Medicare, Medicaid and Military are “controlled” by the Government. Even Federal employees, other than those just mentioned, can choose. My wife works for the Feds and doesn’t have Fed insurance. She found it cheaper and better elsewhere, although it’s going up astronomically in anticipation of “upcoming” events.

I fully agree that Federal or State “mandates” are wrong. But how else are the politicians going to make a killing. If they can’t provide mandates nobody would try to buy their vote.

Tiberius - Your lightning rod of hate!

March 5th, 2012
9:36 pm

“Till the new bill it was 25, now it’s 26.”

Nope. There was no mandate for 25 in any Federal law on coverage of children.

ragnar danneskjold

March 5th, 2012
9:49 pm

Dear Tiberius @ 7:55, agree, thanks. I think I’ve hit a nerve when they start with the epithets – as if their brains can no longer form a real thought and they simply spew. My second favorite moment is when one of them quotes the first six words I write along with a typical leftist “non-thought.” I am saving a verbal skewer for one of those, just waiting for the best victim.

Linda

March 5th, 2012
9:57 pm

Michael@8:07, There ain’t nothing “free.” If drug stores want to offer “free” drugs, that’s fine by me. Our family pays our way. I told my husband 36 yrs. ago that I could take care of myself, which is what I continue to do. I seldom shop at Publix cause I ain’t no yuppie, that it, a shopper who doesn’t look at prices, let alone compare them with other grocery stores. If pharmacists want to help low-income families, that’s great, but my household will not take away from that incentive.

Linda

March 5th, 2012
10:03 pm

If Obamacare could “CURE” the left-wing liberal brain-damaged ideology, would it be worth sacrificing the fragile debt-ridden focus of the progressives?

Dusty

March 5th, 2012
10:19 pm

Well, I think all of you should go back and read Kyle’s opening statement again. He made it quite clear why he thought Obamacare is a nightmare for taxpayers. He was accurate and did it without rancor.

Too bad the quality of this blog cannot be the same. We could have a debate and not a cat fight. Maybe we should try it sometime. Civility is said to be very enjoyable!!

MarkV

March 5th, 2012
10:20 pm

ragnar danneskjold complaining about epithets? The same ragnar danneskjold who called a young woman a slut just because she dared to express an opinion different from his? Who repeated the insult that some other conservatives called crude, rude, even piggish, vile, repugnant, a behavior deserving contempt? Yes, sure, that ragnar danneskjold can talk about epithets!

MarkV

March 5th, 2012
10:22 pm

Linda @9:28 pm: “What is the relationship that MarkV has with Fluke?”

It is a matter of decency, Linda. You would not understand.

Linda

March 5th, 2012
10:33 pm

MarkV@10:22, It is a matter of decency, which you can’t ever understand, because you are flawed & indecent, from the soles of your feet to the hairs on your head. I’m still praying for you.

Tiberius - Your lightning rod of hate!

March 5th, 2012
10:35 pm

Toughen up, Ginger (MarkV).

- – - – retentive isn’t sufficient to accurately describe you, son.

Don't Tread

March 5th, 2012
11:28 pm

“It is increasingly clear that taking the law completely off the books is the only way to avoid a true fiscal catastrophe.”

Not to mention a true Constitutional catastrophe. But then again, Democrats could care less about the Constitution. The end justifies the means, as far as they’re concerned.

Pizzaman

March 5th, 2012
11:30 pm

Tiberius @ 9:36

There is still no Federal mandate. It was cover up to 25 IF the policy owner (parent) wanted to pay and if the student was still dependant, the student could be covered till 25. The BIG change: the age limit is now 26. All other provisions still apply. It is not a mandate to anyone. If the policy owner wants to pay the increased premium for their 25 yr old rising to 26 yr old dependant, estimated at @ 30$/m, they can CHOOSE to do so.

Tiberius - Your lightning rod of hate!

March 5th, 2012
11:33 pm

Then why was it in the BILL, Pizzaman?

Congress doesn’t put “suggestions” into law, you know.

Pizzaman

March 5th, 2012
11:39 pm

Read the bill. It’s optional. It is in the bill because it rasied the age from 25 to 26.

Pizzaman

March 5th, 2012
11:43 pm

Dusty @ 10:19

How does Kyle or anyone else for that matter know what it’s actually going to cost since the actual cost’s don’t arrive till 2014. Till then it’s all speculation. Look what speculation has done to the price of gas. No candidate or sitting President can mandate to “pig oil” or any other “private company” how to do business.

Pizzaman

March 5th, 2012
11:51 pm

Tiberius,

If you consider the fact that the bill raised the age of an option one tear then yes it is a mandate. The insurance company has to offer the coverage up to 26 if the policy owner wants to pay the increased premium.

If you consider this a mandate then you probably think social security is a Ponzi scheme. Another place we’ll never agree on. But then again God bless America. It lets us disagree.

Bernie

March 6th, 2012
4:25 am

The same was said of Medicare too!

We were also told that the Iraqi’s would throw flowers and candy. All the soldiers have seen is IED’s!
We were also told that it would pay for itself. A trillion dollars later and cost is stillsoaring with no end in sight.

At leats this time..it will be for all of the American People! and I am willing to bet on them any day of the
week.

unlike you Kyle and your ILK! who would rather see it perish first, than to see any level of success by a Man of color at the helm. That is the part that irks you to no end!

despite all of your wishes of failure and despair it still flourshes as a cedar of Lebannon. strong and full of life.

Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)

March 6th, 2012
5:31 am

Bernie: At leats this time..it will be for all of the American People!
———–

No, Bernie, as usual “it” isn’t for all the people. The paying is for a select few (the productive, responsible class) and the getting is for the parasite Democrat voting class.

Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)

March 6th, 2012
6:10 am

That’s why it’s a nightmare for tax PAYERS.

It’s a dream come true for folks who don’t care to work for a living and contribute nothing to the running of the government.

Alexander

March 6th, 2012
8:08 am

Medicare works well and given the ridiculous private health insurance industry shell game, universal health care would be worth the cost. Here’s a vote for upping the ante on the current law.

Alexander

March 6th, 2012
8:11 am

However, given the current “wellness” trend in private insurance, I foresee great inconvenience in accessing insurance for people who eat like Jabba the Hut going forward (whether private or public)

wallbanger

March 6th, 2012
9:04 am

Obama a “straight talker”. I listen to him, and at the end of every speech ask myself “how”? He spouts nonsensical pie in the sky bus and everybody slobbers over him, but there is no reality check, ever.

Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)

March 6th, 2012
9:08 am

Obozo’s policies usually depend on some kind of magic occurring, like reducing the deficit by creating a new trillion dollar entitlement. He’s a liar and a communist, and if you vote for him, you’re an American in name only.

Do what??????

March 6th, 2012
9:17 am

“How does Kyle or anyone else for that matter know what it’s actually going to cost since the actual cost’s don’t arrive till 2014.”

So you admit that no one knows how much this thing will cost. Not a good thing, pizzaface.

Do what??????

March 6th, 2012
9:18 am

“Get a clue! Learn! OPS forgot, closed minded people have no personal opinions they let someone else think for them.”

“We have to pass the bill to find out what’s in it” – Nancy Pelosi

Do what??????

March 6th, 2012
9:19 am

@@

Yep, and while Bookman went on and on about how evil Limbaugh is, he didn’t say a peep about the comments about Breibart or Palin.

Libs = retards

Jefferson

March 6th, 2012
9:23 am

Eventually, you will like the program as it improves the quality of american lives. Get in line, its easier to go with the parade. Nightmares are imaginary.

Do what??????

March 6th, 2012
9:29 am

“Eventually, you will like the program as it improves the quality of american lives.”

Yeah, if you like waiting in line for 14 hours to see a doctor.

If you like sitting in pain as you wait to have your appendix removed.

If you like waiting years to have simple knee surgery.

Do what??????

March 6th, 2012
9:36 am

Well, well, well…the truth comes out about the slut.

Sandra Fluke, Gender Reassignment, and Health Insurance

Sandra Fluke is being sold by the left as something she’s not. Namely a random co-ed from Georgetown law who found herself mixed up in the latest front of the culture war who was simply looking to make sure needy women had access to birth control. That, of course, is not the case.

As many have already uncovered Sandra Fluke she is, in reality, a 30 year old long time liberal activist who enrolled at Georgetown with the express purpose of fighting for the school to pay for students’ birth control. She has been pushing for mandated coverage of contraceptives at Georgetown for at least three years according to the Washington Post.

Brie

March 6th, 2012
9:47 am

An intelligent woman would research coverage within an insurance program before choosing to attend a university. S. Fluke is either lacking intelligence or a subversive operative within the DNC. If contraceptive coverage was so important she should have gone to Syracuse.

S. Fluke deserves no sympathy. No support.

Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)

March 6th, 2012
10:03 am

The Fluker is starting to look like a religiophobic Catholic-hater attempting to use government to deprive Georgetown of their First Amendment rights.

Do what??????

March 6th, 2012
10:07 am

“S. Fluke is either lacking intelligence or a subversive operative within the DNC.”

Both.

UGA 1999

March 6th, 2012
10:16 am

Haven’t we been saying this since day 1?

Brie

March 6th, 2012
10:19 am

Obama grew up privileged while his nanny suffered persecution under Islamic fundamentalism.

Obama’s transgender ex-nanny outcast in Indonesia

Do what??????

March 6th, 2012
10:22 am

“Obama grew up privileged while his nanny suffered persecution under Islamic fundamentalism.

His brother grew up in a hut and his grandmother is an illegal alien.