tangent4ronpaul
07-22-2009, 10:55 AM
http://atr.org/atr-cfa-call-u-s-house-a3565
ATR and CFA have called on Members of the U.S. House of Representatives to reject H.R. 2920,
“Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2009, which is ultimately nothing more than a rhetorical fig leaf for fiscal recklessness.
ATR may rate a vote against the bill, while the Center for Fiscal Accountability will rate a vote against it.
From ATR's vote alert:
The concept may be rhetorically appealing - after all, the concept of paying for something ‘as you go’ sounds like a common sense idea. But make no mistake, H.R.2930 is nothing more than a fig leaf to provide political cover for tax-and-spend policies, and would in fact set the stage for higher taxes being touted as the only way to avoid such across-the-board cuts in entitlement spending.
But political gimmickry doesn’t end here. H.R. 2920, which mirrors the President’s proposal from June, assumes that existing expiring entitlement programs will continue indefinitely and as such don’t have to be paid for, while most expiring tax law will have to be paid for. At the same time, the bill contains a loophole for some of the President’s own priorities including a few cherry-picked popular extensions of current tax law (the Death Tax, the Alternative Minimum Tax and certain other tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003). Medicare payments to physicians would also conveniently be excluded
==========
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/19/deficits-taxes-time-appear-doom-health-care-reforms/
President Obama's budget director on Sunday described a House bill on health care reform as "deficit neutral" even though it includes Medicare payments to doctors that would put the bill $240 billion in the hole over a decade.
Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag insisted that Obama won't sign any health care reform that isn't paid for, but also said the legislation doesn't take into account savings that will be achieved in other bills to come.
Democrats say physician Medicare payment reductions that cause the $240 billion deficit in the bill, will be dealt with in upcoming "Paygo" legislation. Paygo, which requires government to pay for what it purchases, and not rely on deficit spending, hasn't passed the House but is likely to do so.
"The payments to physicians is in the legislation, and that is the only reason that the bill shows a deficit. Once you take that part out, the bill is deficit neutral," Orzsag told "FOX News Sunday," noting that reductions are "sort of already baked in to our fiscal trajectory" for future spending.
The Congressional Budget Office, Congress' number crunchers, angered Democrats last week when it showed that the House bill now on the table to institute nationalized health insurance, is unsustainable.
The CBO calmed nerves when it issued a second report late Friday that says adjusting the totals to reflect a 20 percent reduction in Medicare payments to physicians would save the country $6 billion over a decade.
[...]
btw: discretionary spending (40% of the budget) is exempt...
ATR and CFA have called on Members of the U.S. House of Representatives to reject H.R. 2920,
“Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2009, which is ultimately nothing more than a rhetorical fig leaf for fiscal recklessness.
ATR may rate a vote against the bill, while the Center for Fiscal Accountability will rate a vote against it.
From ATR's vote alert:
The concept may be rhetorically appealing - after all, the concept of paying for something ‘as you go’ sounds like a common sense idea. But make no mistake, H.R.2930 is nothing more than a fig leaf to provide political cover for tax-and-spend policies, and would in fact set the stage for higher taxes being touted as the only way to avoid such across-the-board cuts in entitlement spending.
But political gimmickry doesn’t end here. H.R. 2920, which mirrors the President’s proposal from June, assumes that existing expiring entitlement programs will continue indefinitely and as such don’t have to be paid for, while most expiring tax law will have to be paid for. At the same time, the bill contains a loophole for some of the President’s own priorities including a few cherry-picked popular extensions of current tax law (the Death Tax, the Alternative Minimum Tax and certain other tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003). Medicare payments to physicians would also conveniently be excluded
==========
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/19/deficits-taxes-time-appear-doom-health-care-reforms/
President Obama's budget director on Sunday described a House bill on health care reform as "deficit neutral" even though it includes Medicare payments to doctors that would put the bill $240 billion in the hole over a decade.
Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag insisted that Obama won't sign any health care reform that isn't paid for, but also said the legislation doesn't take into account savings that will be achieved in other bills to come.
Democrats say physician Medicare payment reductions that cause the $240 billion deficit in the bill, will be dealt with in upcoming "Paygo" legislation. Paygo, which requires government to pay for what it purchases, and not rely on deficit spending, hasn't passed the House but is likely to do so.
"The payments to physicians is in the legislation, and that is the only reason that the bill shows a deficit. Once you take that part out, the bill is deficit neutral," Orzsag told "FOX News Sunday," noting that reductions are "sort of already baked in to our fiscal trajectory" for future spending.
The Congressional Budget Office, Congress' number crunchers, angered Democrats last week when it showed that the House bill now on the table to institute nationalized health insurance, is unsustainable.
The CBO calmed nerves when it issued a second report late Friday that says adjusting the totals to reflect a 20 percent reduction in Medicare payments to physicians would save the country $6 billion over a decade.
[...]
btw: discretionary spending (40% of the budget) is exempt...