The Congressional Budget Office today released its preliminary analysis of the Republican health reform repeal bill, and the 10-year increase to the deficit is higher than previously assumed: $230 billion instead of $143 billion. That's because the 10-year window now ends in 2021 instead of 2019, and health reform's impact on the deficit increases over time.
Which brave "fiscal conservative" will be the first to stand up and denounce health care repeal as destroying the futures of our children and grandchildren? Pete Peterson? Alan Simpson? Paul Ryan?
Not the "fiscal conservatives" at the Heritage Foundation. My former bloggingheads.tv sparring partner Conn Carroll, instead of embracing real deficit reduction, launched an attack against the CBO on the Heritage blog today, claiming it doesn't believe its own numbers:
While the CBO did produce a report projecting that Obamacare could produce $124 billion of savings over its first 10 years, no honest and intelligent person believes that that score will ever become reality. Not even the CBO. CBO Director Doug Elmendorf wrote: “CBO’s cost estimate noted that the legislation maintains and puts into effect a number of policies that might be difficult to sustain over a long period of time.”
I suppose it is true that if we don't follow through on health reform, the estimated deficit reduction wouldn't materialize.
And here's a great way to not follow through on health reform: repeal health reform.
I guess that's why the CBO found that repealing health reform would add $230 billion to the deficit in the next 10 years.
