He is trying to take one from col A and one from col B and slam them
together and then claim he is being totally bipartisan and they should
all just shut up and vote for it. Way to go, A-hole. Don't want it,
don't buy it, don't believe him for an instant. Just more of the same
stuff the people have already said they don't want but he doesn't care.
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Tuesday, February 23, 2010
CBO: Obama health bill too sketchy
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By Kara Rowland <http://www.washingtontimes.com/staff/kara-rowland/>
President Obama tried to woo the GOP with sweeteners and threw out the
controversial "cornhusker kickback," but the White House's first stab at
resurrecting the health care overhaul was so bare-bones that Congress'
budget scorekeeper couldn't put a price tag on it.
In a nod to Republicans, Mr. Obama's proposal calls for a centralized
database where government officials can document Medicare and Medicaid
abuses --- an idea from the conservative House Republican Study Committee.
The president also culled a provision from a centrist House Republican
bill that would require background checks for those who provide health
care services under Medicare. The plan also adds stronger sanctions such
as jail time for those who purchase, sell or distribute
Medicare-beneficiary information numbers.
Republicans were not impressed and continued to take aim at Mr. Obama's
decision to release a plan before Thursdays televised White House summit
with Capitol Hill lawmakers.
"The president has crippled the credibility of this week's summit by
proposing the same massive government takeover of health care based on a
partisan bill the American people have already rejected," said House
Minority Leader John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican.
Saying it "doesn't make sense" to start from scratch, the administration
ignored calls from the Republican minority to scrap the Democratic
health care bills and instead released a detailed outline based on the
Senate version. At the same time, advisers insisted that Mr. Obama is
heading into the summit with an "open mind."
The administration did not post the bill's text on the White House Web
site but outlined what the legislation would do. It said the measure
would cost $950 billion over 10 years.
The information wasn't enough for the nonpartisan Congressional Budget
Office, the official keeper of budget costs, to even venture an estimate
of the bill's price tag.
"Although the proposal reflects many elements that were included in the
health care bills passed by the House and the Senate last year, it
modifies many of those elements and also includes new ones," CBO
Director Douglas Elmendorf said in a blog post.
"Preparing a cost estimate requires very detailed specifications of
numerous provisions, and the materials that were released this morning
do not provide sufficient detail on all of the provisions."
Republicans and Democrats have blamed each other for the lack of
bipartisanship on health care, but the pressure has been on Democrats to
reach out now that they have lost their filibuster-proof majority in the
Senate. While Republicans have said that true bipartisanship requires
writing bills together, Mr. Obama has argued that it means the minority
party must accept some things it doesn't like.
After letting Capitol Hill take the lead for the past year, Monday's
proposal was Mr. Obama's first effort at a comprehensive bill. His moves
are designed to answer some of the harshest criticisms of the House and
Senate bills.
In addition to addressing a couple of Republican ideas, Mr. Obama's
version removes one of the flash points of the Senate health care bill
--- Nebraska's special Medicaid arrangement that guaranteed it more
federal dollars than other states, which Republicans derided as the
"cornhusker kickback."
The Senate bill expanded eligibility for Medicaid so that more people
would qualify. But Medicaid is a shared state and federal
responsibility, which means that states eventually would have to pay
more to cover the new enrollees. Sen. Ben Nelson, a moderate Nebraska
Democrat and a last holdout in the Senate vote last year, negotiated a
deal under which his state's increased payments would be funded by the
federal government in perpetuity.
Although the White House removed the Nebraska provision, it left other
special exemptions, even after Mr. Obama called the deals "ugly" in an
ABC News interview last month. He lamented that the deals undermined
public support for the bill.
Mr. Obama's bill, for example, kept the $300 million in Medicaid funds
that Sen. Mary L. Landrieu secured for Louisiana, according to her
office. It has become known as the "Louisiana Purchase."
But White House press secretary Robert Gibbs noted that Mr. Obama's bill
would allow any state in which a major disaster occurred to be eligible
for additional federal Medicaid funding. "So it's not a carve-out," he
said.
Mr. Gibbs on Monday called on Republicans to post their own proposal
online. House Republicans responded by pointing out that the text of
their bill has been posted on their Web site for months.
"Mr. Gibbs needs to talk with his boss. Our health care alternative ---
the full text of the legislation --- has been available at
healthcare.gop.gov for months, which President Obama knows, since he
discussed it with us in Baltimore a few weeks ago," said Michael Steel,
a spokesman for Mr. Boehner.
Mr. Obama's proposal appeared to leave untouched the special treatment
that Sen. Bill Nelson, Florida Democrat, and other senators helped
negotiate for Medicare Advantage customers in their states, though Mr.
Nelson's office said it couldn't be sure until the CBO scores the bill.
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