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

[wonketteRAWKS]

How.will.all.of.this.be.paid?

[FrazeC]

gee if you wait for them to finish, you just might find out

[zipowitz]

Do you somehow believe that TRILLIONS will come from nowhere?

[zipowitz]

Taxes, some more taxes and then on top of that, taxes and oh yes, taxes from our future generations and generations and generations. After that we will work on the debt, no wait, we have to work on the climate bill first and of course we will need some more for that too. But rest assured once that is done we will get to the debt, maybe just the deficit first but then for sure the debt. Wait, first thing after all of that will be jobs.....o­h forget it.

[FrazeC]

gee...taxe­s, schmaxes..­..you guys really are fixated

[FrazeC]

well I am a Canadian with a single payer system and am thoroughly pleased with it even though I have to be higher "taxes"...­..our plan has kept my husband from dying from Prostate cancer, my daughter from breast cancer, her children and myself treated for numerous illnesses (some serious) with absolutely no cost to me or mine...it can be done

[Opygollopy]

Canadians have had this coverage for 60 years. It is single payer, government health care. Its excellent coverage, geared to your income. We do pay higher taxes on other things by l or 2 % to enhance the coverage, ie. sales tax. Our health care premiums are taken once yearly from personal income taxes provincially. My hubby and I pay One Thousand fifty dollars a year for complete coverage and our incomes totai between $75K & $100K . We gladly pay 1 percent on products to have our health coverage.

Never will any Canadian be forced into bankruptcy, lose retirement money or house due to medical bills. EVER. We also have strong regulations in the financial market to prevent any gross misconduct EVER by greedy corporations.

[getsit]

Don't be fooled. The money is there-just being directed to more "important" things-like the Bush tax breaks for the rich and the wars. My tax break of $20 more a month, as a middle class, sure didn't go a long way. I would gladly give it back if the rich give theirs back.

There are a lot of other health governmental programs (federal, state and local) that many people are not aware of. We have a number in California. All these programs can be eliminated , the funds added to the pot, and these families be given a choice of a private insurance company or, hopefully, a public plan.

We could even go futher, eliminate Medi-Cal, Medicare, Veterans health benefits, the children's programs and put all this money in one pot. Then everyone can have quality affordable health care depending on their income.

One wonders if the taxes even need to be raised (well maybe to the rich back to pre Bush years). The states can throw in a share, employers, even local government health services. This depends, of course, on a remodel of the whole healthcare system where everyone is treated equally. A cold day in hell

[zipowitz]

What about paying down the deficit or the debt? Did you ever think of that. We are going to pay BILLIONS to get people to buy our debt. It's sickening.

[Bardmess]

We could also restore the estate tax. There's a whole lot of money being wasted on rich people there.

[FrazeC]

now we know where all those medical interest lobbyists are spending their money...su­x don't it

[getsit]

Maybe it was "leaked" by someone at FOX MADEUP NEWS. Then the media ran with it.

Everything out in the media should be suspect. No one checks the accuracy (and facts) before they run with a story.

[StevieRae]

It would be interesting to know who wrote the article in CongressDaily that the CBO had scored the cost of the healthcare bill and source of his/her information.

One would expect the usual characters working to defeat this healthcare reform are Republicans, lobbyists, healthcare representatives.

Now it seems there's someone in the CBO leaking information to defeat the healthcare bill.

Who could that be........­are there any Woodward-type investigative reporters still out there????

[heartsick]

I'm afraid not.

[Telemachus]

"[N]one of the reporters working on this piece contacted our press offices to fact check their story."

Epitaph for a democracy.

[escribacat]

So who the h3ll generated this phony story -- so obviously designed to generate negative opinions of health care reform?

[fairplaystacy]

Most employers of organizations with this kind of political sensitivity require that employees abide by some communications discipline and policies with consequences for no doing so that included dismissal

They should hunt down the errant employee and fire them, period.

[Ethics101]

Could be they are a "spouse" of a lobbyist..­.........

[jerichoj8]

Score Single Payer!

[Telemachus]

Yep. And also, don't forget to score the no-action option. That's the most expensive of all.

[power1]

Liberals would like everyone to think this new healthcare legislation is free.

[mouselion]

No. We just want it to be affordable and available for everyone.
Taking the insurance profit-rigging out of the picture will be the first step by forcing them to compete with non-profit co-ops and a government public plan.

[jugganaut]

And conservatives have no problem spreading baseless lies to spread fear among the populace about "socialized medicine".

There, I generalized just like you. Aren't generalizations great fun?

[thinkagain2]

What are you talking about? No one has said anything about anything being free. Quit with being part of the problem and become part of the solution.

[octoberxs]

Free no, cheaper than the current messed up system according to data from all the other industrial nations that provide universal health care to it's citizens. Why is it conservatives are so happy to over pay for a system that is years behind everyone else and does not work? Can I interest you in a beta tape player?

[Haitians4Obama]

No, that's why the president put $634 Billion in the budget (which you republidiots made a whole show about that) for a down payment on healthcare.

Is that you Sarah? You really need to learn how to read the new paper...go learn something boo as you keep showing your ignorance.

[vgirl1]

As usual Republican conservatives put out and run lock stock and barrel with unverified information in the hope of dismantling anything that might end the strangle hold their campaign contributors allow the Republican conservatives to have on the American agenda.

Conservative Republicans are more concerned with fear mongering and maintaining control and priviledge then they are with truth and real help to and for the American public.

[UnknownSoldier]

They can't do it without help from the MAINSTREAM MEDIA

[stown]

Not trying to argue, but I don't see anywhere in this article that Republicans are mentioned.
What is your point in regards to this article? It seems to address the CBO and the Democrats, and the process of putting together a health care bill. What am I missing?
Please elaborate.­......

[nomobull]

SURPRISE NOT

[octoberxs]

Why don't they remind us what we are paying for the current "system", a trillion a year, double per capita of most industrial nations with universal care, and hey our system ranks somewhere in the mid-thirties for all that money we are spending. Yep, let's keep the broken down Yugo system instead of investing in something smart.

[Jlong]

Excellent point. They really need to try to compare the new plan with the current "alternati­ve."

[hardlyhikin]

Correct-a-mundo!

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!

[smchp]

....and we ALL know EXACTLY how a totally fabricated story like that got published. Why are these people not fired and the lobbyists that paid them outed?

[drkazmd65]

Once again, the fiscal pseudo-con­servatives are squawking and speading lies and propaganda in advance of legislation they don't like,....

Remind me again what it is (conservatively) estimated that the 'War On Terror" has cost us since ~2002? Wasn't that Trillion + spending mostly rubber-stamped by a Repbulican­-dominated Congress full of theoretical fiscal conservatives - aided of course by lapdog Democrats?

Then,... let's talk a bit about the Trillion + we have shoveled in the direction of TARP & other corporate bailouts.

Then come and talk to me again about a Health Care Plan costing a Trillion or so. At least spending on Health Care gets us a benefit from spending the money.

[octoberxs]

No the war on terror was going to pay for itself according to the Republicans and White House remember? We'd be paying fifteen cents a gallon at the pump and getting all this income from the oil fields of Iraq.

[Telemachus]

And before that, nuclear power was going to be "too cheap to bother metering." Yes, the corporate crooks have been working on their script for a long, long time.

[KQuark]

This is the typical disinformation that the right wing and ProfitCare wants in the public.

[thinkagain2]

yep. trace the bogus numbers right back to the health care lobby and the no-no club.