Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Obama's fantasy veto

Apparently President Obama has threatened to veto parts of his health care bill after it came to light that the health care bill will not bend the cost curve down and in reality it will likely cause a minimum increase of $115 billion in government spending on healthcare. SUPRISE the health care reform bill will do nothing to decrease prices and will actually increase prices and government spending well paint me shocked and alarmed. Thankfully I now have free Obamacare so that I can seek psychiatric care for my PTSD resulting from my crushed hopes that our President was going to lower the cost of health insurance. This poses some very simple but perplexing questions: (1) how do you veto portions of a bill you already ratified by signature in full and (2) Why did Obama sign something before the final CBO score had been released? Now the issue is what can we do to recover this $115 billion in increased costs well we have an answer from President Obama who has instructed Congress to find $115 billion in spending cuts (not bloody likely) or tax increases(SUPRISE AKA SOAK THE RICH KILL THE ECONOMY) to offset the price tag hike. The truly ironic thing is that $115 billion dollars is approximately the figure the Congressional Budget Office stated would be saved by the health care reform bill and was an important figure in the attempt to keep the health care tab under a trillion dollars and garner critical votes. There you have it people no decrease in the cost of health care and increased taxes once again no hope harmful change.




Obama can veto the additional $115 billion in spending because the spending is discretionary and as such Congress has the ability to either appropriate or not appropriate the additional funds by voting yea or nay. What is the additional spending for?

The Congressional Budget Office said the added spending includes $10 billion to $20 billion in administrative costs to federal agencies carrying out the law, as well as $34 billion for community health centers and $39 billion for Indian health care.
The real question is would Obama really veto additional government entitlement spending and go against the wishes of liberal Congress?  Excuse my rampant skepticism and I will go on the record as saying that the chances of President Obama vetoing any part of his health care reform baby are zero and I have more faith in a professional sports team from Buffalo winning a super bowl ring.  Obama will not veto any portion of this bloated health care bill and even if he did show some fiscal restraint and kill a portion of this terrible bill it would be too little too late.  Taking $115 billion out of this trillion dollar monster would be like claiming victory over drug addiction because a junkie could refrain from using on tuesdays and thrusdays.  It will not matter in the end this healthcare bill is toxic and clipping the fingernails of the monster won't change a bad bill into a beauty queen.


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