“The American people can kill this monster in its crib. Handing Republicans the keys to Congress on November 2 could smother this $2.5 trillion extravagance in its infancy. While a GOP repeal vote surely would earn a presidential veto, a Republican Congress could defund this law’s implementation. Instead, Republicans should administer a pro-market antidote to ObamaCare’s poison: health-insurance vouchers, Medical malpractice reform; universal, tax-free Health Savings Accounts; and individual, portable medical plans — all available across state lines.”
“The ‘spin’ surrounding the Trustees Reports will largely involve what the new health care bill did and did not do to ‘solvency’ and other metrics. Unfortunately, the real ‘news’ in the reports is that the window for reform to slow the growth of these programs and to keep taxes at historical levels has nearly closed. Program beneficiaries need to be told of changes before they retire so they can adjust their life plans accordingly. If someone knows in advance that Social Security benefits will be lower or Medicare Part B premiums higher, they can delay retirement and make other changes. When people are informed of these changes in retirement, that flexibility has been taken away, leaving them worse off. Yet, if reforms are passed in say 2013 (a soon but reasonable timeframe) and they exempt future beneficiaries within 10 years of retirement, the reforms will (or can only) address less than 40% of the entitlement cost growth. In short, the painful process of adjusting to a much larger government will have already been baked into the cake.”
“In the 2010 Annual Report of the Board of Trustees of the Federal Hospital Insurance and Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Funds, the Board warns that ‘the actual future costs for Medicare are likely to exceed those shown by the current-law projections.’ The Trustees Report is necessarily based on current law; as a result of questions regarding the operations of certain Medicare provisions, however, the projections shown in the report do not represent the ‘best estimate’ of actual future Medicare expenditures. The purpose of this memorandum is to present an alternative scenario to help illustrate and quantify the potential magnitude of the cost understatement under current law.”
“For the first time in Medicare history, the Medicare Chief Actuary has called the projections in a Medicare Trustees Report ‘unreasonable’ and ‘implausible’ and encouraged everyone to ignore them and view instead an ‘Illustrative Alternative’ report… The alternative report says that the number of facilities that would become unprofitable will grow to 25% by 2030 and 40% by 2050 if the health reform law is implemented as written.”
59% of likely voters told Rasmussen that they wanted to repeal ObamaCare. Only 38% told the pollster they wanted to keep it in place. This is the largest number the pollster has found to date.
“One of the more illuminating remarks during the health-care debate in Congress came when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told an audience that Democrats would ‘pass the bill so you can find out what’s in it, away from the fog of controversy.’ That remark captured the truth that, while many Americans have a vague sense that something bad is happening to their health care, few if any understand exactly what the law does. To fill this vacuum, Representative Kevin Brady of Texas, the top House Republican on the Joint Economic Committee, asked his staff to prepare a study of the law, including a flow chart that illustrates how the major provisions will work… It’s a terrifying road map that shows Democrats have launched America on the most reckless policy experiment in its history, the economic equivalent of the Bay of Pigs invasion.”
Taxpayer funding is being used to falsely claim that ObamaCare saved Medicare without cutting any benefits. “In a new TV spot from the Obama administration, actor Andy Griffith, famous for his 1960s portrayal of the top law enforcement official in the fictional town of Mayberry, N.C., touts benefits of the new health care law. Griffith tells his fellow senior citizens, “like always, we’ll have our guaranteed [Medicare] benefits.” But the truth is that the new law is guaranteed to result in benefit cuts for one class of Medicare beneficiaries — those in private Medicare Advantage plans.”
A comprehensive look at the promises broken by ObamaCare. “The president has challenged Republicans to run against his unpopular health care law—implying that they don’t have the political courage to do so. He may be right on that point; he may not—but the facts show that (a) many of the highest-profile selling points employed by the Left to drag Obamacare across the finish line were either incorrect or intentional distortions, (b) the consequences of not repealing this law are dire, and (c) the public’s enduring hostility toward Obamacare demonstrates a political appetite for repeal. Recent polls reflect America’s zeal for repeal, as does an August ballot referendum in Missouri rebuking the individual mandate, which succeeded by a margin of 71-29. Throughout the lengthy public debate, President Obama and his surrogates consistently ridiculed and denounced critics of the bill as bad-faith, fear-mongering propaganda merchants. The facts now prove there was plenty to fear in good faith.”
“Under Obamacare, Medicare and Medicaid can be expected to add 35-40 million enrollees in the next ten years, with cost projections amounting to a 35 percent increase of the current state burden of $190 billion. States will face massive cost-sharing increases, with a disproportionate increase in the Mountain States.”
The Obama Administration released their Mid-Session Review of the budget outlook, and it isn’t pretty. “The primary threat to the nation’s long-term prosperity is runaway federal entitlement spending. Entitlement costs are set to rise so fast and so quickly that the implications for federal deficits and debt are staggering. If allowed to stand, the health law has dramatically reduced the flexibility of the federal government to respond to the coming budget crisis. It locks in massive new spending commitments, and uses every trick in the book to make it look like those commitments have been paid for.”