At long last, on the eve of tomorrow's historic vote on health reform in the House of Representatives, the GOP released its own health reform legislation this week.

It is true to the GOP mantra -- focused on private insurance, tax cuts/credits, etc. Against new government programs. Fair enough. This is what they believe.

Unfortunately for them, the CBO has looked at it. Based on this analysis, the GOP plan does not reduce the number of uninsured over the next 10 years. And worse, it does not reduce the deficit as much as the Democrat's House bill does.

What was the GOP thinking when they put this together?

From Ezra Klein, pundit for the Washington Post:

Congressional Budget Office Thrashes Republican Health-Care Plan

Republicans are learning an unpleasant lesson this morning: The only thing worse than having no health-care reform plan is releasing a bad one, getting thrashed by CBO and making the House Democrats look good in comparison.

Late last night, the Congressional Budget Office released its initial analysis of the health-care reform plan that Republican Minority Leader John Boehner offered as a substitute to the Democratic legislation. CBO begins with the baseline estimate that 17 percent of legal, non-elderly residents won't have health-care insurance in 2010. In 2019, after 10 years of the Republican plan, CBO estimates that ...17 percent of legal, non-elderly residents won't have health-care insurance. The Republican alternative will have helped 3 million people secure coverage, which is barely keeping up with population growth. Compare that to the Democratic bill, which covers 36 million more people and cuts the uninsured population to 4 percent.

But maybe, you say, the Republican bill does a really good job cutting costs. According to CBO, the GOP's alternative will shave $68 billion off the deficit in the next 10 years. The Democrats, CBO says, will slice $104 billion off the deficit.

The Democratic bill, in other words, covers 12 times as many people and saves $36 billion more than the Republican plan. And amazingly, the Democratic bill has already been through three committees and a merger process. It's already been shown to interest groups and advocacy organizations and industry stakeholders. It's already made its compromises with reality. It's already been through the legislative sausage grinder. And yet it saves more money and covers more people than the blank-slate alternative proposed by John Boehner and the House Republicans. The Democrats, constrained by reality, produced a far better plan than Boehner, who was constrained solely by his political imagination and legislative skill.

This is a major embarrassment for the Republicans. It's one thing to keep your cards close to your chest. Republicans are in the minority, after all, and their plan stands no chance of passage. It's another to lay them out on the table and show everyone that you have no hand, and aren't even totally sure how to play the game. The Democratic plan isn't perfect, but in comparison, it's looking astonishingly good.

The problem with the GOP is that they are beginning to believe their own propaganda...

quote:

But maybe, you say, the Republican bill does a really good job cutting costs. According to CBO, the GOP's alternative will shave $68 billion off the deficit in the next 10 years. The Democrats, CBO says, will slice $104 billion off the deficit.

This is idiotic.

Give me a trillion in new taxes and fees, and I can give you back 100 billion in "savings" very quickly.

The GOP position has as much chance of passing as...well that's a matter for other threads.


There has to be a strategy for the GOP lurking somewhere, I guess its above my pay grade to understand it.

quote:

Originally posted by fathertopianist:

There has to be a strategy for the GOP lurking somewhere, I guess its above my pay grade to understand it.

[zen]
The strategy is to not have one.
[/zen]

quote:

Originally posted by Jeffrey:

quote:

But maybe, you say, the Republican bill does a really good job cutting costs. According to CBO, the GOP's alternative will shave $68 billion off the deficit in the next 10 years. The Democrats, CBO says, will slice $104 billion off the deficit.

This is idiotic.

Give me a trillion in new taxes and fees, and I can give you back 100 billion in "savings" very quickly.

Actually, it is not idiotic.

Of course we are going to increase the Federal budget is we adopt health care reform -- of any kind. Why would anyone think we wouldn't?

But as we know from the Bush Administration, it is very possible for the Federal government to take on multi-trillion dollar programs -- such as wars -- and not pay for them.

The fact Mr. Obama and the Democratic majority in Congress intend to adopt a new program AND pay for it -- if not actually use it to help reduce the deficit -- is a sign of fiscal responsibility while meeting the needs of the country.

We can argue which is the best way to pay for it, but making sure it is paid for is a good thing.