Newt, And An Anonymous Democrat, Erroneously Claim House Health Care Bill Will Cost $1.5 Trillion
You don't hear Democrats echoing Newt Gingrich all that often. But after yesterday's House health care bill unveiling, it seems that at least one anonymous Democratic aide and the former House Speaker have found common cause.
After House leaders rolled out their legislation, Gingrich took to Twitter to criticize it:
"The liberal health bill introduced by pelosi [sic] is a disaster. $1.5 trillion in new spending. Tax increases on virtually everyone."
There are various errors in that statement, but the biggest one is the price tag. As I reported yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office is estimating that the bill will cost about $1 trillion, and Democrats have proposed covering that cost with a surtax on Americans who make over $350,000 a year, and by wringing efficiencies out of the bloated health care system.
But though it's unsurprising that Newt would find a way to elide the CBO's analysis, it is surprising that a House Democratic aide would mimic him. According to the Associated Press, "a House Democratic aide said the total bill would add up to about $1.5 trillion over 10 years. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private calculations." And that figure--about $500 billion off the mark--is what the AP ran with in its lede. "House Democratic leaders, pledging to meet the president's goal of health care legislation before their August break, are offering a $1.5 trillion plan that for the first time would make health care a right and a responsibility for all Americans."
House Dems are, of course, none too pleased. This is the sort of meme thing that can snowball into a wide misunderstanding of what, exactly, the House of Representatives is proposing--so we'll be on the lookout for it.
Josh
Matt
Eric
Brian
No surprise at all that the AP ran with the $1.5 trillion figure. The AP has become a very close second to Fox News with regards to simply regurgitating the RNC mantra of the day. All of their stories have a bad spin against Obama too.
July 15, 2009 11:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
I guess you can say anything you want as long as your source is anonymous and therefore unverifiable.
July 15, 2009 11:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
It could be an aide to a Blue Dog that is trying to sabotage the legislation.
July 15, 2009 11:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
"Tax increases on virtually everyone (that we care about)."
Fixed it.
July 15, 2009 11:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
Sen. Nelson, is that you?
July 15, 2009 12:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nah, it's a House Democratic aide. Way too many possible suspects, unfortunately.
July 15, 2009 12:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
I heard the $1.5 trillion figure on the Today show this morning from a business corespondent. I wondered where she got it from.
She also said that it would raise taxes on small business, that small business owners would also get hit again by the income tax surcharge, and that that would of course hurt the economy.
This is from NBC, which according to the right-wing is the most liberal of the MSM.
July 15, 2009 12:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
ABC's GMA this morning quoted the same figure. $500 billion is a lot of a difference.
July 15, 2009 1:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
You're ripping Gingrinch for using the number 1.5 trillion? C'mon folks, he's probably low balling as it will probably cost even more. When has the gov't EVER estimated the cost of ANYTHING correctly? And when they do estimate something it is ALWAYS lower than the actual cost. Yeah, let's spend trillions of dollars so we can "save" money. Unbelievable.
July 15, 2009 12:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes....the government certainly underestimated the cost of unregulated financial industry and the cost and duration of the Republican Oil War.
July 15, 2009 1:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why would anyone trust a republican estimate of a progrm's cost after the debacle of the Iraq War estimates?
None of the Dems are blowing smoke up our ass saying it will magically pay for itself.
July 15, 2009 12:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
You should not trust an estimate from EITHER party and they are BOTH blowing smoke up your ass. If you haven't yet figured that out yet, you have a long way to go to get to the truth. How anyone thinks the gov't can run anything efficiently is beyond me. Almost every state is in a budget crunch. Why? Because they all spent money like drunken sailors when times were good thinking the good times would just keep on rolling. In other words, they can't manage sh*t. The feds are even worse. We are over a TRILLION in debt THIS YEAR ALONE. The gov't is incapable of running ANYTHING efficiently. They can not do it. Instead of being a party hack, come to the realization that they both suck and vote them all out.
July 15, 2009 1:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Share with us, enlightened one, your plan for reducing deficits in the long term without major reform of the healthcare system which will, by necessity cost money in the short term.
The democrats haven't had this opportunity in many years, so don't immediately assume they'll blow it.
July 15, 2009 1:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Giant Douche and Turd Sandwich argument is what ended up letting Bush win against Gore.
July 15, 2009 1:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Only the pope is more infallible than the market.
July 15, 2009 1:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
you don't have any idea what the CBO is or how it works, do you?
July 15, 2009 3:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Please name for me ANYTHING the gov't does efficiently. Wasting money does not count. The gov't is simply INCAPABLE of doing it efficiently.
Yeah, I have time to sit down and work out a plan for 25% of the economy. Here is what I do know. The gov't WILL screw it up.
Here is a partial list of California agencies. The feds are even worse. Why don't we freaking eliminate a bunch of these agencies and save some damn money for a change?
Division of Planning and Local Assistance * California Division of Recycling * California Division of Safety of Dams * California Division of the State Architect * California Division of Tourism * California Division of Workers’ Compensation Medical Unit * California Division of Workers’ Compensation * California Economic Assistance, Business and Community Resources * California Economic Strategy Panel * California Education and Training Agency * California Education Audit Appeals Panel * California Educational Facilities Authority * California Elections Division * California Electricity Oversight Board * California Emergency Management Agency * California Emergency Medical Services Authority * California Employment
Oh yeah, the list goes on for 6 pages uninterrupted. We are being screwed by both parties and most people don't even know it because they are so locked into one party. Never vote for an incumbent.
July 15, 2009 1:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
One thing the government does well is to use taxpayer money and the blood of our youth to preserve the oil industry.
July 15, 2009 1:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, though I know it will make your dogma soaked little brain explode out your ears if you were to believe it, Medicare is a lot more efficient than private insurance. Administrative costs for Medicare are roughly half of what they are for private insurers.
Now go run off to the wingnutosphere and find some of their cooked numbers you can use to claim that I'm the one whose numbers are cooked.
July 15, 2009 3:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
this is more something of an article of faith among your ilk than something supported by the facts.
not to mention that the majority of what government does is fill the gaps of market failure (doing the things that need doing that the market can't do because there isn't a profit to be made in doing them).
again, an erronious article of faith that eliminating agencies equals efficiency or necessarily saves money.
i guess you figure we could just eliminate every agency and just have maybe one agency - say, the Agency for Doing Stuff - and government would be so much more efficient.
July 15, 2009 3:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
oh and i'd be very interested to hear your arguments against any agency on the list you provided.
July 15, 2009 3:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, government can be inefficient. But if you have ever worked in a large company, you will also find a lot of waste in the majority of them as well, even those that are well regarded. It is intrinsic to bureaucracy.
OK, have it your way -- the government doesn't do anything. Sure, you'll save a lot on taxes for a year or two, but a few years out, is the result better than what we have, as imperfect as it is?
July 15, 2009 5:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
I am willing to bet that many who read the posting on this website also frequent others. As I do check at numerous, I looked at Real Clear Politics...and the cost for Healthcare posted $1.5 Trillion.
So now we have a clear and distinct measure of the political leaning of websites that try to present the image of "non-political".
July 15, 2009 3:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
But it's a damn FACT that the CBO scored the bill as 1.042 trillion. HOW THE FUCK DOES THAT ROUND UP TO 1.5 trillion!? I find that amazing.
July 15, 2009 4:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
You actually believe the gov't numbers on admin costs? OK, go bow down to your gov't idol because the gov't would never lie about anything.... expect the war, cpi, unemployment, etc. etc. etc. Use your darn brain. You are being fooled and your kids (if you have any) are being screwed by a gov't that is over 1 trillion in debt already this year. Libs chastised Bush for a 400 billion dollar deficit (and rightly so) but now have no problem with a deficit that will be around 2 TRILLION in one year!! C'mon people, many of these "representatives" have been around for WAY TOO LONG and have no connection to normal Americans.
July 15, 2009 3:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
"One thing the government does well is to use taxpayer money and the blood of our youth to preserve the oil industry."
They don't do it very efficiently though.
July 15, 2009 3:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
The list of agencies goes on for 6 pages. Are you telling me you couldn't find a way to eliminate some of them, shrink and/or combine others? I hope you aren't in change of freaking managing anything. I guess I didn't realize this was one big lib party here when I signed up. For goodness sakes, we can't even agree that gov't is presently too big. How the hell do you think California got to be 24 billion dollars in debt? Wise choices? They just haven't taxed people enough (they are the highest taxing state in the nation)? No, it's gov't spending that has done them in.
July 15, 2009 3:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bigvoo, still waiting on something concrete to back up your wholesale disparaging of government...
Complex things like the US Government often seem too "big" or messy when you don't take the time to understand them. The beautiful thing about this country is that you can educate yourself and get involved to make positive change...a much more "efficient" approach to improving things than spouting unsubstatiated generalities.July 15, 2009 4:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
seriously, you copied and pasted a random sample from six pages and in that random sample you posted as evidence of there being too many gov't agencies, you can't find a single agency that you are willing to argue for eliminating.
does that not tell you something about your argument?
July 15, 2009 4:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
I am watching MSNBC and have been readin an article on their website and BOTH say "1.5 trillion dollar health care bill." WHAT THE FUCK? They pulled that number out of their asses.
July 15, 2009 4:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Real Clear Politics uses the $1.5 trillion figure on its homepage ... and links to a WSJ article that gives the correct figure in the first sentence.
July 15, 2009 4:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Real Clear Partisanship
July 15, 2009 4:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bigvoo,
Would you mind explaining to me exactly how "vote them all out of office"?Is this Brewsters millions where we replace them with "none of the above"???
And citing a list of government agencies to highlight inefficiency is idiotic. Should we do away with all baseball teams because there are so many and just have AL v NL every day?
The whole "government is inefficient" meme is a well-worn republican line that many people buy into because it 'sounds right', it's taken for granted, just like everyone knew that the sun goes orbits the earth!. Back it up with some FACTS, and I'd be happy to listen.
July 15, 2009 5:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why doesn't The AP simply rename themselves FAUX Jr.?
It would be so much easier for those that don't follow politics to understand that AP and FAUX are one in the same.
July 16, 2009 10:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
As much as I don''t like Newt, If AP said something I would probably assume it is true as well... Also the story says over and over that the Democratic aid was echoing Newt, like they were in some kind of alliance... but when you get down to the bottom where it explains, they just both made the same mistake.
July 16, 2009 12:12 PM | Reply | Permalink