Since we haven't talked about healthcare in almost a whole month...

The healthcare monster is officially open for debate on the Senate floor. With barely enough votes to even get to the debate part of the process (the motion to debate passed 60-39, with 60 being the minimum amount of votes to pass), the Democrats are in for what could turn into unrestrained debate next month. Did I mention that not a single Republican voted to begin debate and more than likely will not vote for any healthcare reform bill?

The latest argument over the bill: the cost. The U.S. currently has the largest debt we’ve ever had. If we don’t raise the current legal debt ceiling, we will actually default on some of our debt. The healthcare bill as it stands now will cost approximately $979 billion over 10 years. It will also reduce the deficit over the same 10 years, i.e. the bill will NOT add to our current debt. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091122/ap_on_go_co/us_health_care_overhaul) Supposedly the bill will save 3.5 million jobs and $800 billion over the next 20 years. Republicans however, don’t buy it and are saying things like, “I don't want to fix the problems in our health care system in a way that creates more of an economic crisis.” (Joe Lieberman, I-CT). Kit Bond (R-MI) even called the whole bill a, “scam”. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091122/ap_on_go_co/us_health_care_democrats)

To find out who exactly is full of it, I went straight to the source: The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the entity in charge of estimating the fiscal impact of bills introduced by congress. Per a CBO report published on November 20th, the federal budget deficit will have a net reduction of approximately $138 billion. ($979 billion cost over 10 years less the $800 billion in savings over 10 years… not exactly $138 billion in net savings, but close enough for our purposes here.) If you’d like to read the whole report, click on the link: http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/107xx/doc10741/hr3962Revised.pdf.

For those of us who are skeptical of the CBO (or any governmental entity), here are the facts:

1. The director is jointly appointed for a four year term by the Speaker of the House and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate.
2. Director and Deputy Director compensation is set by law
3. Approximately 70% of the professional staff hold advanced degrees in either economics or public policy.

For more info in the CBO: http://www.cbo.gov/

Former Director Robert Reischauer, who served from 1989-1995, recently noted, “CBO is there to score savings for which we have a high degree of confidence that they will materialize… There are many promising approaches [in these reform ideas] but you...can't deposit them in the bank.” Hmm, I think I might be sold on this whole billions of dollars in net savings thing…

For an extremely in-depth well-written article on the specifics of the healthcare bill, check this out: http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/11/a_milestone_in_the_health_care_journey.php