CBO Cites Facts, Democrats Whine
The Congressional Budget Office works for – wait for it – Congress. What a surprise, right? Well, when the CBO cites authoritative studies to back up their analyses, Congress and the current Obama spokesperson insist that the CBO just isn’t giving Congress enough credit.
In yet more disappointing news for Democrats pushing for health care reform, Douglas W. Elmendorf, director of the Congressional Budget Office, offered a skeptical view Friday of the cost savings that could result from preventive care — an area that President Obama and congressional Democrats repeatedly had emphasized as a way health care reform would be less expensive in the long term.
Obviously successful preventive care can make Americans healthier and save lives. But, Elmendorf wrote, it may not save money as Democrats had been arguing.
“Although different types of preventive care have different effects on spending, the evidence suggests that for most preventive services, expanded utilization leads to higher, not lower, medical spending overall,” Elmendorf wrote. “That result may seem counterintuitive.
….
In their continuing struggles with CBO, Democrats from President Obama on down have expressed frustration that Elmendorf doesn’t give Democrats’ health care reform proposals sufficient credit for cost cutting through preventive care.
“One of the things that’s disappointing about CBO — and frustrating — is all the work … done on prevention” that the CBO doesn’t factor in, Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., co-author of the Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee legislation, recently griped.
The difference: CBO cites studies that Jake Tapper links to that prove that the CBO view is correct. The Democrats and Obama cite – well – nothing whatsoever. They just insist that they are right and the CBO is wrong. Because, apparently, the CBO doesn’t subscribe to “Then a miracle happens” theory.
Congress – including members quoted in the article – and Obama himself swore themselves blue in the face that the super-duper, ultra-wonderful “stimulus” would create more jobs than you could shake a cliché at AND all but guarantee a pony for everyone.
How’s that working out?
Please go read the whole thing – including the studies Tapper links to.
I’d submit that the decision here goes to the CBO, not to the whining members of Congress and especially not to the Obama Pollyanna, who is just absolutely sure they are right. Really they are. They just have to be. As has been the case at every turn, the health care “reform” will actually cost more. The only way they curve is being bent is straight up, asymptotic to the axis (sorry, math degree got the better of me).
(Incidentally, Pollyanna is Linda Douglass – an ex-journalist. Elmendorf has a few more credentials in the world of financial facts.)
Democrats, Medicine, Obamantics | Gaius August 9, 2009
By Tully, August 10, 2009 @ 10:29 am
Typical. When called out on the facts, simply say those presenting the facts are liars. Provide no evidence of the assertion.
By martian, August 10, 2009 @ 1:04 pm
They’re not calling them liars, Tully. They’re just saying the CBO is tragically wrong and misinformed. Again, do they offer any proof of that? Well, no, but they’re Democrats, they don’t need proof. All they need is their convictions and you and the CBO are of course wrong because you disagree with them.