House passes health care bill

Mar 21, 2010 CNN.com... The House passed the bill in a 219-212 vote on Sunday. ... Republicans [and 34 Democrats] failed to stop the Democratic health care initiative despite utilizing almost every weapon in their legislative arsenal ... The plan, according to CBO projections, will cut budget deficits by over $1 trillion in its second decade ...


Huffington Post April 2, 2010

.....Democrats trumpeted the bill as reducing the deficit. They relied on last minute scoring from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reporting that the bill will reduce the federal deficit by $138 billion over 10 years. As a result, proponents declared the bill as good for the deficit and the economy.

History will prove whether this claim is true. But anyone who has even peeled back one layer of this onion knows the CBO was boxed in to giving a distorted picture. This law will be proven quickly to expand our bloated deficit -- and sadly, the media was asleep at the switch and did not report on it.

The big distortion occurred by the CBO assumption that the 21 percent cut in doctors' Medicare reimbursements would stay in place...... This allowed them to claim $450 billion in Medicare savings. Yet, the same politicians who voted for the bill have also promised doctors a "fix" and that they will restore the drastic cuts in Medicare reimbursement.

Democrats Successful in Stopping [their own] Big Cut in Medicare Pay for Physicians

April 16, 2010 Senior citizens can take their annual sigh of relief that a Medicare pay cut for physicians has once again been avoided. The giant pay cut over 21 percent had the potential of causing many doctors to no longer care for Medicare patients. The bill stopping this year's pay cut was signed by President Barack Obama last night after Democrats won a hard fought battle with Republicans [and 34 democrats]....