March 08, 2010 9:17 am ET
On yesterday's political talk shows, Republican members of Congress used their time in the spotlight to blandly reiterate the weak GOP talking points on a variety of issues. Senators McConnell and Hatch, however, went even further and made outrageously false claims about Democratic health care reform legislation.
SEN. MITCH McCONNELL: "So what I think the American people are saying to us: stop this job killing health care bill..."
FACT: Democratic health care reform could create up to 4 million jobs over the next ten years.
Health Care Reform Will Create Up To 4 Million American Jobs In The Next Decade. According to the Center for American Progress, "Relative to baseline employment forecasts from the Employment Projections Program at the U.S. Department of Labor, we estimate that moderate medical savings from health care modernization as envisioned under the legislation now before Congress would lead to an average of 250,000 additional jobs created annually. Under the larger assumption about savings due to health care reform, 400,000 new jobs a year would be created on average." [Center for American Progress, New Jobs Through Better Health Care, January 2010]
SEN. MITCH McCONNELL: "People are very, very skeptical about starting a whole new government program when we're drowning in a sea of debt."
FACT: Democratic health care reform will reduce our deficit by billions of dollars.
CBO: Democratic Bill Would Cost $1 Trillion, Cut Deficit By $132 Billion. According to the Congressional Budget Office's analysis of the Democratic health care plan:
CBO and JCT estimate that, on balance, the direct spending and revenue effects of enacting the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act incorporating the manager's amendment would yield a net reduction in federal deficits of $132 billion over the 2010-2019 period. [Congressional Budget Office, 12/19/09]
SEN. MITCH McCONNELL: "The benefits don't kick in for four years. All the American people are going to be confronted with in the next four years are these massive cuts to Medicare...the tax increases kick in immediately."
FACT: Not only does health care reform NOT cut Medicare benefits, but the minor tax changes do not kick in for at least a year.
"None Of The 'Savings' Or 'Cuts' (Whichever You Prefer) Come From Reducing Current Or Future Benefit Levels For Seniors." According to FactCheck.org, "The House bill would trim projected increases in payments for hospitals, insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and others, including home health care providers and suppliers of motor-driven wheelchairs. But it also proposes what CBO estimates is a $245 billion increase in spending for doctors, by canceling a scheduled 21 percent cut in physician payments. None of the 'savings' or 'cuts' (whichever you prefer) come from reducing current or future benefit levels for seniors." [FactCheck.org, accessed 9/9/09]
CBO: Cost Changes To Medicare Made From Savings. According to the CBO letter to Senator Baucus: "Changes to the Medicare program and changes to Medicaid and CHIP other than those associated directly with expanded insurance coverage: Savings from those provisions are estimated to total $93 billion in 2019, and CBO projects that, in combination, they will increase by 10 percent to 15 percent per year in the next decade." [CBO.gov, 10/7/09]
Financial Portions Of Health Care Reform Bills Will Not Become Effective Until 2011 At The Earliest. As indicated by the Kaiser Family Foundation's analysis, the effective dates for financial provisions of both pieces of legislation are years away, save fees placed upon the health industry.
The effective dates for taxes, fees, or fines in the Senate Bill are as follows:
2014
January 1, 2013
January 1, 2011
January 1, 2011
January 1, 2011
January 1, 2013
January 1, 2013
January 1, 2010
December 31, 2008: fee on the pharmaceutical manufacturing sector
December 31, 2009: fee on the medical device manufacturing sector
December 31, 2008: fee on the health insurance sector
The effective dates for taxes, fees, or fines in the House Bill are as follows:
January 1, 2013
January 1, 2011
January 1, 2011
January 1, 2011
January 1, 2013
January 1, 2013[KFF.org, accessed 1/7/10]
SEN. ORRIN HATCH: The fact of the matter is, they're going to abuse the reconciliation rules. And let me tell you, the reconciliation rules have never been used for such sweeping social legislation. This is one-sixth of the American economy. It's sweeping in effect.
FACT: The Senate already passed a comprehensive health care bill under normal rules with a 60-vote supermajority; reconciliation would only be used to pass a budget fix to the earlier legislation.
The Senate Passed Health Insurance Reform With 60 Votes. According to the Washington Post, "Senate Democrats approved landmark legislation just after sunrise Christmas Eve that would transform the nation's health-care system by requiring people without insurance to obtain coverage and protecting those who have it from the most unpopular private insurance practices. Vice President Biden presided over the 60 to 39 party-line vote, described as a historic milestone by senators on both sides of the aisle. Despite the early hour, Democrats sat alert at their desks, exhausted but exuberant, savoring a victory that had eluded so many of their predecessors. 'This is probably the most important vote that every sitting member of the Senate will cast in their tenure here,' said Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), one of the authors of the bill." [Washington Post, 12/25/10]
"The Use Of Reconciliation Is This Case...Is Compatible With The Law, Senate Rules, And The Framers Intent." Thomas E. Mann and Raffaela Wakeman of the Brookings Institution and Norman J. Ornstein of the conservative American Enterprise Institute wrote:
Reconciliation was intended to be a narrow procedure to bring revenues and spending into conformity with the levels set in the annual budget resolution. But it quickly became much more. The 22 reconciliation bills so far passed by Congress (three of which were vetoed by President Bill Clinton) have included all manner of budgetary and policy measures: deficit reductions and increases; social policy bills like welfare reform; major changes in Medicare and Medicaid; large tax cuts; and small adjustments in existing law. Neither party has been shy about using this process to avoid dilatory tactics in the Senate; Republicans have in fact been more willing to do so than Democrats.
The history is clear: While the use of reconciliation in this case - amending a bill that has already passed the Senate via cloture - is new, it is compatible with the law, Senate rules and the framers' intent. [New York Times, 3/7/10; emphasis added]
Reconciliation Will Be Used For Budgetary "Fixes" That Even Republicans Support. During an appearance on MSNBC's Hardball, NBC Political Director Chuck Todd explained the reconciliation process likely to be used for fixing health care reform:
CHUCK TODD: A little fact check on reconciliation - they're not trying to pass the entire health bill on reconciliation.
MATTHEWS: I think the Democrats are in good shape right now to get this thing through in a two-step. Get the House to pass the Senate bill and get through the Senate reconciliation. [MSNBC, Hardball, 3/25/10]
MATTHEWS: That's what he means.
TODD: However, that's how it's framed. Correct, that's what he - what's happened here is the Republicans are saying, they already tried to pass out the bill. They're going to pass health care through the Senate.
They're trying to do these fixes, which is - the irony is, it's all of the - most of the fixes, about half of them are the ones that Republicans have been complaining about with the cornhusker kickback. They're going to get rid that. They're going to do -
(CROSS TALK)
MATTHEWS: Jim Clyburn just said they're going to get rid of (UNINTELLIGIBLE). We're on the record. The great thing about tonight's show is we're getting the facts out here. The facts are they're not going to use reconciliation to pass health care.
(CROSS TALK)
They're going to pass the Senate bill in the House and then, right around the same time, they're going to pass the fixed bill with reconciliation which is basically dealing with the fiscal numbers, which is an appropriate way to use reconciliation.
TODD: The parliamentarian is going to have an easy time with that one.
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