CBO Numbers On House Health Care Bill Are Fake

The Congressional Budget Office has not released scores on the House health care reform proposal, despite reports that it had estimated the plan would cost taxpayers upwards of $1.5 trillion.

CongressDaily reported earlier Tuesday that the package had been scored -- legislative lingo for a cost estimate -- at a figure that would make passage of the House bill in the Senate difficult.

The report caused a stir on the Hill and stoked fears of a setback.

"THERE. IS. NO. SCORE," e-mailed one frustrated committee aide.

Three committees -- Ways and Means; Education and Labor; and Energy and Commerce -- are working on the bill.

Negotiations over the package continue. Democratic staffers are meeting now to decide how to pay for the health care overhaul, said a Democratic aide, with a set of proposals expected later Tuesday or early Wednesday.

UPDATE: In a statement unusual in its harsh wording, all three committees are pushing back against the story.

The Press Offices of the House Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce and Education and Labor Committees released the following statement today in response to an inaccurate report published in CongressDaily asserting that the House Tri-Committee health care reform legislation has been scored by the Congressional Budget Office:

"This report is premature and entirely fabricated. In fact, none of the reporters working on this piece contacted our press offices to fact check their story. The three House committees are still working to develop legislation and have not yet received a score from CBO on the discussion draft. As the three chairmen have made clear, our health care reform legislation will be paid for and we're still considering revenue options."

Ryan Grim contributed reporting.

Comments

[markm33]

We are all just two unfortunate steps away from insolvency with our current health system!

Step one: Be unfortunate enough to lose your job. Not much of that going around, is there.

Step two: Be unfortunate enough to get sick or be involved in an accident of some nature.

At this point savings start dwindling, and the whole family is taken down financially. Scare tactic? This could never happen to you, right?

[ntmessage]

Rerun from 1993? The latest is that we are slowing the growth and that is reform?

Frankly, slowing the growth in Health Care when our economy just contracted around 15% and the net worth of everyone is halved, and then calling it historic is singularly the most preposterous notion that any government (and I am including Bush) or administration has asked the public to believe. This (without a public option) by itself is a 10% plus increase in Health Care costs relative to other costs and increases the percentage of GDP and percentage of income going to Health Care.

This is a NET INCREASE IN HEALTH CARE COSTS under the guise of reform. I expected Bush to do this type of slight of hand, but OBAMA? What the heck is going on here! Beuller? Beuller?

We are raising costs and raising taxes to pay for an inefficient and criminal Health Care System.

We do not need to increase TAXES when the system itself is so inefficient! Please! By adding more money on top of an inefficient system, we are just throwing that money away. You might as well burn it to help with the energy crisis. Common sense not rocket science! When you WASTE A TRILLION A YEAR you do not need a nickel more in revenue. Just some cahones and leadership. The Dems are so cowardly it is ridiculous. They need to man up! This is what happened in 1993 and the system sucks even worse now.

[Tim303]

Wow. Who put this nasty number out there?

[rosiebond007]

Please tell Rahm that we need single payer health care - we voted for Obama because he said that we would have it.
Rahm seems to forget the healthcare provision that we fund for him - now he needs to listen to us and help us get the healthcare that was promised.
He also needs to be quiet !!

[stupid electrician]

Give them a week when the bill is scored the will be begging to have the 1.5 trillion score back cause it will be much higher than that.

[Conservador-Rebelde]

Absolutely! I'm beginning to think Obama's boys are running the CBO, so they won't give a "score" until after the bill is passed. After that, they'll come out and say it will cost 3-4 trillion... that's my guess.

[plaidsportcoat]

If that's "harsh wording" ----truly, the dems are sunk.....

[noneIn2008]

Tax the gold plated health care plans for everything above the standard plan for everyone. Everyone should have equal health care plans. Those who want the extra, can pay the extra in taxes. The Unions will not like this, but why cut this special interest a deal.

Put all federal and state employees, including Congress in the standard plan. Let's not cut special plans for "special" people.

[salkoc]

we the people can somehow fund a trillion dollar war OFF budget without any complaints from the so called fiscal conservatives but ONE trillion dollars over 10 years has become a serious problem to our national security . what a joke .

the media is an absolute joke . they are covering palin , sanford , and the rest of the so called news .

ask these people some serious questions and hold their feet to the fire .

why do you senator get free coverage while millions of americans lose coverage every year.
why do you senator continue to spend billions of tax payer money on rebuilding a foreign country.
why do you senator spend billions on making life easier for banks and financial institutions and not your constituents .
why would you deny health coverage to americans while you get a free ride.

[BigAl72]

Excellent point. I agree 100%.

[markm33]

Excellent points. The proposed cost of the even the most "expensive" health care program proposal so far (about $1.5T) as a percent of GDP is below that of other "developed" countries. But you won't find these details on CNN these days. There's Michael and Sarah to talk about. Populist tripe abounds while Rome burns around us.

[aview999]

Pressure the Whitehouse by going to 'firedoglake' and telling your Congress member to take the PLEDGE!
http://action.firedoglake.com/page/s/publicoption
They need to Take the Pledge to vote against any health care bill that doesn't have a public plan which is:
available nationwide
on day one
and accountable to Congress and the voters
If they haven't taken the Pledge, CALL THEM!!

[hardlyhikin]

Dare your Rethuglican representative to compare TOTAL health care costs we Americans are now paying (i.e., what employers are paying, what individuals with and without health insurance are paying, what costs doctors and hospitals are absorbing, what states and cities are paying, what medicare and social security are paying) to the cost of a single payer system.

My guess is that even if the cost of single payer was $2 trillion we'd save money!

[pigpen4573]

Here's a link to a chart from Economist which shows that info

http://media.economist.com/images/20090627/CBB677.gif

[ComeOnAmerica]

thanks for the link, pigpen. I'll be sending it to many, many people in D.C. and in the media.

[Conservador-Rebelde]

Something that should be added to that chart... quality of care. Ours is a couple times better than anyone else's, so of course it will cost more.

[BurtonOerney]

CongressDaily got the story wrong? Unthinkable! This has to be the work of diabolical lobbyists. And it would have worked perfectly but they didn't count on one thing: EMAIL!!!

[cozen]

When GOP is down to mass lying again, does it mean people are winning?

[LaurenMarie984]

when does the GOP ever *not* resort to mass lying?

I think when it's this blatant, hopefully yes - we are winning.

[grf67]

And even if this is true, it is not much more than the bush drug plan that covers many fewer people. We will pay for it the same way bush and the republicans paid for his drug plan.

[mh01]

I suppose that this is all part of some vast right wing conspiracy?

[dredeize]

Time to pay up, you rich b.a.s.t.a.r.d.s!!

[BurtonOerney]

Are you talking to someone in particular or just fantasizing?