The Democratic health care reform proposal in the United States Senate will actually cost taxpayers $2.5 trillion over ten years. That much has now been admitted by the prominent Senator Max Baucus (D-Montana).
“Just for a second — health care reform, whether you use a ten-year number or when you start in 2010 or start in 2014, wherever you start at, so it is still either $1 trillion or it’s $2.5 trillion, depending on where you start…”
What’s he talking about? The nice deficit-neutral number actually includes years before the program actually kicks in. If you start tallying the program’s cost when it actually begins, which would be common sense, you get $2.5 trillion.
Allahpundit applies the liberal “let’s start counting before the program” logic to Afghanistan:
If we start counting next summer, Obama’s not actually sending any new troops, is he? See how easy it is make the left happy?
Democrats want the ten year countdown to begin years before the program even begins. That’s how they arrive at the deficit-neutral number. If you start the countdown on the day the program kicks in, we’re looking trillions of dollars in new spending.
Trackbacks/Pingbacks
[...] by Stephan Tawney Senate Republicans grilled Senator Max Baucus (D-Montana) on the floor today, pointing out once again that his $2.5 trillion health care reform bill is paid for by gutting Medicare, increasing taxes, and adding to the national deficit. The video is below: Incidentally, you can see Baucus conceding that his bill really costs $2.5 trillion at the beginning of the video. His admission was previously covered here. [...]