I thought I must be thick as a brick because I couldn't understand how "not one dime . . . not one dime" (read my lips) would come out of Medicare while at the same 500 or 600 billion from Medicare would be available to pay for the new proposals. Neither could I grasp how any money from a speeding locomotive heading for an actuarial train wreck could be the source of money.

For an appetizer, see how $30 billion comes from premiums and benefits changes under the outpatient prescription drug benefit under Part D of Medicare: CGO 8/28/09

For the entree, see CBO 7/17/09

For desert, you will want to ingest CBO 7/25/09

If you get the impression that HR 3200 is primarily directed at the Medicare crisis with "health insurance exchanges" as a sideshow of extraordinary complexity, you may be right. See CBO 6/16/09

I watched the White House Communications' Director's streaming Q&A after the speech. They chose and answered questions like: "Will I lose maternity leave?" A: "No, you won't lose maternity leave!"