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Liberals posting GAO article about health care reform deficit savings are just full of it.
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Obamacare WILL run massive deficits (according to Medicare)
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Alan Colmes did it.
HuffPo did it.
Think Progress did it.
They all posted the same article about a GAO report. In each article, they note that the GAO states that there will be a "notable improvement in the long-term outlook [for the debt] under the Baseline Extended simulation". Translation: Obamacare reduces the deficit.
Only problem with the article: it's complete fantasy.
In the GAO report itself, the GAO talks about the long-term fiscal outlook of the country. In it they give TWO scenarios for calculating deficit for health care reform:
1 Baseline Extended scenario ,which follows the CBO August 2010 numbers
2 Alternatve, which follow the projections of the CMS Actuary (the actuary of Medicare)
As posted here, much of Obamacare is paid for via long-term cuts to payments of Medicare doctors. The problem is that these cuts would be so severe, that Medicare's own actuaries state that THEY WILL NEVER HAPPEN. To cut the payments of doctors so low would mean doctors would flee Medicare, leaving Medicare itself to collapse.
As we have seen time and time again, Congress always passes the "doc fix"; they never end up lowering payments to doctors so severely.
The problem with what liberals post is that they are only quoting from the Baseline Extended (CBO) scenario, which assumes that all of these cuts to Medicare doctors will take place.
And as just mentioned, Medicare KNOWS that these cuts to Medicare doctors will NOT take place. From the article:
"There is a notable improvement in the long-term outlook under the Baseline Extended simulation, which assumes full implementation and effectiveness of cost control provisions, although some--including the Trustees, CBO and the CMS Actuary--have raised questions about the sustainability of certain of these cost controls."
That's putting it mildly.
And even with the impossible Baseline scenario, take a look at this from the GAO:
"These long-term simulations show that absent additional policy actions the federal government faces unsustainable growth in debt."
Yet Democrats continue to think that we don't have a problem with debt.
Finally, take a look at the graph of our estimated debt.
Now that you know the Alternative scenario is the only one that's going to happen, you can see how high our debt will increase, with Obamacare MASSIVELY ADDING to that deficit.
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