MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'congressional budget office'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:31:38 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5158943&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FkYybUa_rHFo%2F By Daniel J. MitchellThe Congressional Budget Office has just released the update to its Economic and Budget Outlook. There are several things from this new report that probably deserve commentary, including a new estimate that unemployment will “remain above 8 percent until 2014.” This certainly doesn’t reflect well on the Obama White House, which claimed that flushing $800 billion down the Washington rathole would prevent the joblessness rate from ever climbing above 8 percent. Not that I have any faith in CBO estimates. After all, those bureaucrats still embrace Keynesian economics. But this post is not about the backwards economics at CBO. Instead, I want to look at the new budget forecast and see what degree of fiscal discipline is necessary to get rid of red ink. Th... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5158943 Wed, 24 Aug 2011 20:34:41 +0100 5158943 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5077664&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F5l-dpRVXrKU%2F By Daniel J. MitchellI testified yesterday before the Joint Economic Committee about budget process reform. As part of the Q&A session after the testimony, one of the Democratic members made a big deal about the fact that federal tax revenues today are “only” consuming about 15 percent of GDP. And since the long-run average is about 18 percent of GDP, we are all supposed to conclude that a substantial tax hike is needed as part of what President Obama calls a “balanced approach” to red ink. But it’s not just statist politicians making this argument. After making fun of his assertion that Obama is a conservative, I was hoping to ignore Bruce Bartlett for a while, but I noticed that he has a piece on the New York Times website also implying that America&#821... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5077664 Thu, 28 Jul 2011 12:40:44 +0100 5077664 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4968470&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fzi2qAyxyu4s%2F By Chris EdwardsNew projections from the Congressional Budget Office show that without reforms rising federal spending will fundamental reshape America’s economy, and not in a good way. Under the CBO’s “alternative fiscal scenario,” the federal government will consume an 86 percent greater share of the economy in 2035 than it did a decade ago (33.9 percent of GDP compared to 18.2 percent). The CBO report and many centrist budget wonks focus more on the problem of rising federal debt than on rising spending. As a result, many wonks clamor for a “balanced” package of spending cuts and tax increases to solve our fiscal problems. But CBO projections show that the long-term debt problem is not a balanced one—it is caused by historic increases in spending, not shortages of revenues... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4968470 Thu, 23 Jun 2011 16:20:12 +0100 4968470 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4960039&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FMwSOG5P2eGc%2F By Tad DeHavenThe Congressional Budget Office released the latest edition of its annual forecast of where the federal government’s budget is headed. The numbers are new but the message is the same: the budget is on an unsustainable path. According to the CBO’s more politically-realistic “alternative scenario,” federal debt as a share of GDP will hit 109 percent in 2021 and would approach 190 percent in 2035. For those mistaken souls who believe that merely eliminating “waste, fraud, and abuse” in government programs can solve the problem, the CBO has news for you: In the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO’s) long-term projections of spending, growth in noninterest spending as a share of gross domestic product (GDP) is attributable entirely to increases in spending on severa... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4960039 Wed, 22 Jun 2011 20:39:09 +0100 4960039 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4684277&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fjerptwu4EFo%2F By Chris EdwardsHouse Budget Committee Chairman, Paul Ryan, introduced his budget resolution for fiscal 2012 and beyond today entitled “The Path to Prosperity.” The plan would cut some spending programs, reduce top income tax rates, and reform Medicare and Medicaid. The following two charts compare spending levels under Chairman Ryan’s plan and President Obama’s recent budget (as scored by the Congressional Budget Office). Figure 1 shows that spending rises more slowly over the next decade under Ryan’s plan than Obama’s plan. But spending rises substantially under both plans—between 2012 and 2021, spending rises 34 percent under Ryan and 55 percent under Obama. Figure 2 compares Ryan’s and Obama’s proposed spending levels at the end of the 10-year budget window in 2021. ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4684277 Tue, 05 Apr 2011 14:54:21 +0100 4684277 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4605809&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FCMScOf5gXHM%2F By Tad DeHavenThe U.S. Postal Service is in financial trouble. Undermined by advances in electronic communication, weighed down by excessive labor costs and operationally straitjacketed by Congress, the government’s mail monopoly is running on fumes and faces large unfunded liabilities. Socialism apparently has its limits. While the Europeans continue to shift away from government-run postal monopolies toward market liberalization, policymakers in the United States still have their heads stuck in the twentieth century. That means looking for an easy way out, which in Washington usually means a bailout. Self-interested parties – including the postal unions, mailers, and postal management – have coalesced around the notion that the U.S. Treasury owes the USPS somewhere around $50-$75 b... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4605809 Thu, 17 Mar 2011 19:48:34 +0100 4605809 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4445786&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FSQe9ZSH2R2w%2F By Michael F. CannonFrom my latest Kaiser Health News op-ed: When 34 Senate Democrats joined all 47 Republicans last week to repeal ObamaCare's 1099 reporting requirement, their votes confirmed what their talking points still deny: ObamaCare will increase the deficit, no matter what the official cost projections say... This public-choice dynamic [of concentrated benefits and diffuse costs] is why the Congressional Budget Office, the chief Medicare actuary, and even the International Monetary Fund have discredited the idea that ObamaCare will reduce the deficit. It is one of the principal reasons why, as Thomas Jefferson wrote, "The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground." In other words, the game is rigged in favor of bigger government. It als... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4445786 Mon, 07 Feb 2011 16:22:35 +0100 4445786 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4405756&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fi_fqsUVGRmQ%2F By Daniel J. MitchellMany of the politicians in Washington, including President Obama during his State of the Union address, piously tell us that there is no way to balance the budget without tax increases. Trying to get rid of red ink without higher taxes, they tell us, would require “savage” and “draconian” budget cuts. I would like to slash the budget and free up resources for private-sector growth, so that sounds good to me. But what’s the truth? The Congressional Budget Office has just released its 10-year projections for the budget, so I crunched the numbers to determine what it would take to balance the budget without tax hikes. Much to nobody’s surprise, the politicians are not telling the truth. The chart below shows that revenues are expected t... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4405756 Thu, 27 Jan 2011 17:00:32 +0100 4405756 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4405760&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FSNsR1IcCYoM%2F By Tad DeHavenWhen it comes to reining in federal spending, House Republicans and the president have one idea in common: freezing nondefense discretionary spending. That category accounts for about 18 percent of total spending, so let’s see how such a freeze would affect the overall budget. Today the Congressional Budget Office released updated budget figures and baseline projections of federal spending through fiscal 2021. Projecting the budgetary future is obviously an inexact science, and the CBO’s baseline reflects unrealistic assumptions. However, it does allow us to get an idea of the impact of a nondefense discretionary freeze on total federal spending. Three proposals have been put forward: In his State of the Union address, President Obama proposed freezing nondefense discret... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4405760 Thu, 27 Jan 2011 15:00:31 +0100 4405760 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4337939&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fhealthcare-repeal-how-would-it-affect-coverage-and-cost%2F2011.01.11 [Soon] the new GOP-controlled House of Representatives will be voting on and is expected to pass a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) – lock, stock, and barrel. There is virtually no chance the repeal bill will get through the Senate, though, which maintains a narrow Democratic majority, and President Obama would veto it if it did. But let’s say that the seemingly impossible happened, and the ACA was repealed. What would the impact be on healthcare coverage, costs, and the federal deficit? In a letter to Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its preliminary estimates of the impact of repeal on the deficit, uninsured, and costs of care, and found that it would make the deficit worse, result in more uninsured persons, and higher premiu... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4337939 Tue, 11 Jan 2011 22:00:00 +0100 4337939 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4331015&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Frepealing-healthcare-reform-to-gain-campaign-ammunition%2F2011.01.10 Repealing healthcare reform has become a way of stockpiling ammunition for the campaign trail. The Republican-led House has scheduled a repeal of healthcare reform for Wednesday, Jan. 12, and they’d garner as allies some but not all 13 Democrats that voted against healthcare reform to begin with. The House’s quixotic vote would then promptly die in the Democrat-held Senate. But recording votes on repeal would put pressure on already vulnerable lawmakers, as well as give a quick boost to incoming ones. A Gallup poll shows 46 percent of Americans want healthcare reform to be repealed, 40 percent don’t want repeal. Unfortunately, not only can’t the law be passed, it would add $230 billion to the federal debt by 2021, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Hous... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4331015 Mon, 10 Jan 2011 16:00:00 +0100 4331015 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4322491&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FB1rlY0rXtbM%2F By Daniel J. MitchellGrousing about the GOP’s timidity in the battle against big government will probably become an ongoing theme over the next few months. Two items don’t bode well for fiscal discipline. First, it appears that Republicans didn’t really mean it when they promised to cut $100 billion of so-called discretionary spending as part of their pledge. According to the New York Times, As they prepare to take power on Wednesday, Republican leaders are scaling back that number by as much as half, aides say, because the current fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, will be nearly half over before spending cuts could become law. This is hardly good news, particularly since the discretionary portion of the budget contains entire departments, such as Housing and Urban Devel... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4322491 Fri, 07 Jan 2011 21:37:59 +0100 4322491 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4159499&cid=t_163838_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FgwDDlcchpMc%2F So what will health care reform mean to prescription drug pricing? In response to a query from Paul Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin who is the ranking member of the House Budget Committee, the US Congressional Budget Office has analyzed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 and come up with the following forecasts, which discuss price hikes and rebates… For instance, the new law is expected to raise prices paid by pharmacies, less any rebates paid by drugmakers to insurers, by about 1 percent, on average. That increase would slightly raise federal costs for Medicare’s drug benefit and the costs for some beneficiaries, but the new discounts would make the costs faced by other beneficiaries substantially lower. T... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4159499 Fri, 12 Nov 2010 18:13:27 +0100 4159499 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4151755&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F0pptSTQwFWw%2F By Daniel J. MitchellI’ve already written about the terrible work of the Congressional Budget Office. The CBO did an awful job on the stimulus, for instance, repeatedly asserting that diverting money from the private sector to government somehow would create jobs. CBO also was a disaster on Obamacare, claiming that a giant new entitlement program would reduce budget deficits. And the legislative bureaucracy even has argued that higher tax rates boost growth. That sounds absurd (and it is), but CBO is not the only taxpayer-funded bureaucracy on Capitol Hill producing this kind of nonsensical analysis. The Congressional Research Service just published a new report asserting that higher tax rates will boost economic performance. Here’s an excerpt from that CRS publication. &#8230... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4151755 Tue, 09 Nov 2010 20:44:23 +0100 4151755 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4018161&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FwUHSuC1bydo%2F By Daniel J. MitchellWhile I’m glad Republicans are finally talking about smaller government, I’ve expressed some disappointment with the GOP Pledge to America. Why “reform” Fannie and Freddie, I asked, when the right approach is to get the government completely out of the housing sector. Jacob Sullum of Reason is similarly underwhelmed. He writes: In the “Pledge to America” they unveiled last week, House Republicans promise they will “launch a sustained effort to stem the relentless growth in government that has occurred over the past decade.” Who better for the job than the folks who ran the government for most of that time? …Republicans, you may recall, had a spending spree of their own during George W. Bush’s recently conclude... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4018161 Thu, 30 Sep 2010 15:15:16 +0100 4018161 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3895870&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FRl1g5JzgfnQ%2F I hope the title of this post is an exaggeration, but it’s certainly a logical conclusion based on what is written in the Congressional Budget Office’s updated Economic and Budget Outlook. The Capitol Hill bureaucracy basically has a deficit-über-alles view of fiscal policy. CBO’s long-run perspective, as shown by this excerpt, is that deficits reduce output by “crowding out” private capital and that anything that results in lower deficits (or larger surpluses) will improve economic performance — even if this means big increases in tax rates. CBO has also examined an alternative fiscal scenario reflecting several changes to current law that are widely expected to occur or that would modify some provisions of law that might be difficult to sustain for a ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3895870 Sun, 22 Aug 2010 18:00:18 +0100 3895870 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3880842&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FLtfeF_I5PuQ%2F Prior to last week’s passage of another $26 billion in bailout money for state and local governments, I noted that the legislation wasn’t really offset: Congressional Democrats say the measure is paid for with a combination of spending cuts elsewhere and tax increases. However, the new spending is front loaded and much of the spending cuts wouldn’t be realized until after 2013. For example, the Congressional Budget Office’s score of the legislation shows savings from the food stamps program of $12 billion from 2014-2018. Congress can come back any time before that and rescind the cuts. It’s typical Beltway budgetary sleight-of-hand: increase spending up front and “cut” spending on the back-end to get a more deficit-friendly score from the CBO. Democrats don’t really intend ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3880842 Mon, 16 Aug 2010 19:24:04 +0100 3880842 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3861996&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F7JRVnrsWLHs%2F By Tad DeHavenThe White House Office of Management and Budget homepage currently features the following quote from the president: President Obama says he wants to “invest in our people without leaving them a mountain of debt.” That’s a curious statement because the Congressional Budget Office’s analysis of the president’s current budget proposal projects that publicly held debt as a share of the economy would reach levels last seen at the end of the Second World War. When the CBO’s numbers are plugged into a bar chart, the projected Obama debt levels (red bars) look like…the upward slope of a mountain (!): To be fair, Obama’s predecessors — particularly the previous Bush administration — share in the responsibility for the mountainous rise in federal debt. How... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3861996 Thu, 12 Aug 2010 19:34:32 +0100 3861996 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3808662&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F1FRwNP5gB4w%2F By Daniel J. MitchellLike the swallows returning to Capistrano, the Congressional Budget Office follows a predictable pattern of endorsing policies that result in bigger government. During the debate about the so-called stimulus, for instance, CBO said more spending and higher deficits would be good for the economy. It then followed up that analysis by claiming that the faux stimulus worked even though millions of jobs were lost. Then, during the Obamacare debate, CBO actually claimed that a giant new entitlement program would reduce deficits. Now that tax increases are the main topic (because of the looming expiration of the 2001 and 2003 tax bills), CBO has done a 180-degree turn and has published a document discussing the negative consequences of too much deficits and debt. A snippet: ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3808662 Sun, 01 Aug 2010 11:39:50 +0100 3808662 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3603579&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FY8KVrKXofkY%2F By Daniel J. MitchellYou don’t need to watch old Gunsmoke episodes if you want to travel into the past. Just read the latest Congressional Budget Office “research” claiming that Obama’s so-called stimulus “increased the number of full-time-equivalent jobs by 1.8 million to 4.1 million.” CBO’s analysis is a throwback to the widely discredited Keynesian theory that assumes you can enrich yourself by switching money from your left pocket to right pocket. For all intents and purposes, CBO wants us to believe their Keynesian model and ignore real world data. This is akin to the famous line attributed to Willie Nelson, who was caught with another woman by his wife and supposedly said, “Are you going to believe me or your lying eyes?” Using i... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3603579 Wed, 26 May 2010 18:18:19 +0100 3603579 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3573667&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FYIIXaZb_kDA%2F By Michael F. CannonThe Congressional Budget Office estimates that by 2019, ObamaCare will cover 32 million U.S. residents who would otherwise have been uninsured.  Half of those coverage gains would come from expanding the Medicaid program, which has been criticized for poor-quality care. A new study in the journal Inquiry gives another indication that Medicaid provides low-quality care: we find that uninsured and Medicaid patients are treated by lower-quality physicians both because of the hospitals these patients attend and because of sorting within hospitals…Our study concluded that patients in government hospitals that treat large numbers of uninsured and Medicaid patients are least likely to be treated by a board-certified or top-trained physician. The study has plenty of limi... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3573667 Mon, 17 May 2010 20:34:51 +0100 3573667 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3563952&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FIYrgWkD2khU%2F By Michael F. CannonIn this week’s New England Journal of Medicine, MIT health economist and Obama administration consultant Jonathan Gruber responds to claims that ObamaCare will increase health care costs.  Gruber acknowledges the Obama administration’s estimates that ObamaCare will increase health care spending, but compares that to the administration’s estimate that 34 million otherwise uninsured U.S. residents will obtain coverage under the law: [B]y 2019, the United States will be spending $46 billion more on medical care than we do today. In 2010 dollars, this amounts to only $800 per newly insured person — quite a low cost as compared (for example) with the $5,000 average single premium for employer-sponsored insurance. What a bargain!  Of course, Gruber is b... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3563952 Thu, 13 May 2010 16:25:57 +0100 3563952 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3403863&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F9SCL-r3GqNw%2F By Doug BandowSocial Security is officially in the red.  The New York Times reports that the system will pay out more than it takes in this year.  Explains the Times: The bursting of the real estate bubble and the ensuing recession have hurt jobs, home prices and now Social Security. This year, the system will pay out more in benefits than it receives in payroll taxes, an important threshold it was not expected to cross until at least 2016, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Stephen C. Goss, chief actuary of the Social Security Administration, said that while the Congressional projection would probably be borne out, the change would have no effect on benefits in 2010 and retirees would keep receiving their checks as usual. The problem, he said, is that payments have risen more... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3403863 Thu, 25 Mar 2010 12:55:25 +0100 3403863 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3403869&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Ftjws-DzDrxA%2F By Daniel J. MitchellSince we’re already depressed by the enactment of Obamacare, we may as well wallow in misery by looking at some long-term budget numbers. The chart below, which is based on the Congressional Budget Office’s long-run estimates, shows that federal government spending will climb to 45 percent of GDP if we believe CBO’s more optimistic “baseline” estimate. If we prefer the less optimistic “alternative” estimate, the burden of federal government spending will climb to 67 percent of economic output. These dismal numbers are driven by two factors, an aging population and entitlement programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. For all intents and purposes, America is on a path to become a European-style welfare state. If... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3403869 Wed, 24 Mar 2010 17:18:47 +0100 3403869 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3378449&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FD8FXSTYtAVk%2F By Michael F. CannonHouse Democrats claim that a not-yet-released Congressional Budget Office report puts the cost of their revised health care overhaul at $940 billion over the next 10 years. Though I have yet to see the CBO score, I’ll bet anyone a fancy lunch that it does not claim the legislation would cost the federal government just $940 billion from 2010 through 2019. As former Congressional Budget Office director Donald Marron has explained over and over, the figure that Democrats consistently cite for the cost of their bills is only the CBO’s estimate of the cost of federal spending related to the expansion of health insurance coverage.  It is not the full cost to the federal government, because each bill also spends taxpayer dollars on other items. Marron examined th... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3378449 Thu, 18 Mar 2010 15:26:23 +0100 3378449 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3374106&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FUA3h7xM7mE4%2F By Michael F. CannonThe Associated Press reports: Buyers, beware: President Barack Obama says his health care overhaul will lower premiums by double digits, but check the fine print… The [Congressional Budget Office] concluded that premiums for people buying their own coverage would go up by an average of 10 percent to 13 percent, compared with the levels they’d reach without the legislation… “People are likely to not buy the same low-value policies they are buying now,” said health economist Len Nichols of George Mason University. “If they did buy the same value plans … the premium would be lower than it is now. This makes the White House statement true. But is it possibly misleading for some people? Sure.” Nichols’ comments are also m... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3374106 Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:51:05 +0100 3374106 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3358963&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FcTe5RcfvNgw%2F By Michael F. CannonEzra Klein quotes the Congressional Budget Office’s latest cost estimate of the Senate health care bill when he writes: “CBO expects that the legislation would generate a reduction in the federal budgetary commitment to health care during the decade following 2019,” which is to say that this bill will cover 30 million people but the cost controls will, within a decade or so, leave us spending less on health care than if we’d done nothing.  That’s a pretty good deal. But it’s not a very well-understood deal. Indeed, because that’s not what the CBO said. First, the CBO said the “federal budgetary commitment to health care” would rise by $210 billion between 2010 and 2019 under the Senate bill.  Then, after 2019, it w... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3358963 Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:53:40 +0100 3358963 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3354297&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FsCH1nt1xT6c%2F By Chris Moody Greece, here we come…. Congressional Budget Office estimates budget deficits will average nearly $1 trillion per year for the next decade. Matt Drudge re-titles a Cato op-ed: “Mob Tactics Used to Push Healthcare Through.” Daniel Griswold: “On trade, as on so much else, the populists have it wrong again. Free trade and globalization are great blessings to families across America.“ Could Dennis Kucinich bring both sides of the aisle  together to end the war in Afghanistan? Podcast: “Seventies Redux?” featuring John Samples, author of the forthcoming book The Struggle to Limit Government. (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3354297 Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:44:14 +0100 3354297 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3350256&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F4X94fxr3RvI%2F By Tad DeHavenLast week, after Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) said that holders of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s debt shouldn’t be expected to be treated the same as holders of U.S. government debt, the U.S. Treasury took the “unusual” step of reiterating its commitment to back Fannie and Freddie’s debt. If ever there was case against allowing a few hundred men and women to micromanage the economy, this is it. Fannie and Freddie, which are under government control, are being used to help prop up the ailing housing market. If investors think there’s a chance Uncle Sam won’t back the mortgage giants’ debt, mortgage interest rates could rise and demand for housing dampen. Therefore, Frank’s comments caused a bit of a stir. However, with the government bailing out anything that walk... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3350256 Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:28:59 +0100 3350256 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3306820&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FqqB5rZzd2mc%2F By Tad DeHavenThe two large housing government-sponsored enterprises, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, have been in government receivership since September 2008. The U.S. Treasury has given the housing GSEs $112 billion in cash infusions, and this past Christmas Eve it quietly announced it would cover all of Fannie and Freddie’s losses beyond the original $400 billion limit through 2012. The president’s latest budget proposal continues to only count the cash infusions, which it projects to be $188 billion through 2020. On the other hand, the Congressional Budget Office also includes in its budget projections the subsidy cost of new loans or loan guarantees made by Fannie and Freddie, which results in a total projected hit of $370 billion through 2020. The CBO’s rationale for including the... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3306820 Thu, 25 Feb 2010 13:39:37 +0100 3306820 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3182169&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FleTUXXseucI%2F By Michael F. CannonEven if Democrat Martha Coakley wins 50 percent of the vote in the race to fill the late Sen. Ted Kennedy’s (ahem) term, there are other numbers emanating from Massachusetts that present a problem for President Obama’s health plan. On Wednesday, the Cato Institute will release “The Massachusetts Health Plan: Much Pain, Little Gain,” authored by Cato adjunct scholar Aaron Yelowitz and yours truly. Our study evaluates Massachusetts’ 2006 health law, which bears a “remarkable resemblance” to the president’s plan. We use the same methodology as previous work by the Urban Institute, but ours is the first study to evaluate the effects of the Massachusetts law using Current Population Survey data for 2008 (i.e., from the 2009 March suppl... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3182169 Sun, 17 Jan 2010 19:12:07 +0100 3182169 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3167097&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F_T4oaMqq1iI%2F By Michael D. TannerAs President Obama is finding out, spending a trillion dollars on health care reform is easy; paying for it is a bit harder.  Both the House and Senate versions contain huge tax increases.  But they take completely different approaches toward which taxes are hiked and who would pay them.  And, as President Obama discovered in yesterday’s contentious meeting with labor bosses, those differences will not be easy to resolve. The Senate wants to slap a 40 percent excise tax on so-called “Cadillac” insurance plans, that is plans with an actuarial value of more than $8,500 for an individual and $23,000 for a family.  The tax technically falls on the insurance company that offers the plan, but there’s widespread recognition that insurers will merely pas... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3167097 Tue, 12 Jan 2010 19:30:28 +0100 3167097 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3142518&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FV6vBZ0jwCog%2F By Michael F. CannonIn 2009, congressional Democrats fashioned their health care legislation out of public view.  That enabled them to avoid some public intra-party spats; to hide maybe 60 percent of the cost of the legislation and otherwise game the Congressional Budget Office’s scoring rules; to deny the public enough time time to learn about how the legislation would work; and to cram the legislation through the Senate the day before Christmas.  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s backroom negotiations are rightfully infamous. Now comes word that, rather than follow the usual conference procedure that we all learned about as children, House and Senate Democrats will conduct informal negotiations — behind closed doors, all by themselves, with no C-SPAN cameras —... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3142518 Tue, 05 Jan 2010 02:09:58 +0100 3142518 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3111402&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FAakMJhyZahk%2F By Chris EdwardsThe Congressional Budget Office has released final budget numbers for fiscal year 2009. The numbers allow us to take a last look at the Bush administration’s record on spending from a statistical point of view. The following three charts show annual average real (or constant dollar) outlays during the tenures of recent presidents. Presidents were in office for either 4 or 8 budget years, except JFK (3 years), LBJ (5 years), Nixon (6 years), and Ford (2 years). President George W. Bush’s last year was fiscal 2009. Outlays that year were $3.522 trillion, according to the CBO. However, $108 billion was spending for the 2009 economic stimulus package passed under President Obama. Bush was thus roughly responsible for $3.414 trillion of spending in 2009, ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3111402 Sat, 19 Dec 2009 22:26:23 +0100 3111402 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3106720&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FUOSayk4FbN8%2F By Chris EdwardsIn November, the Congressional Budget Office released final budget numbers for fiscal year 2009. The numbers allow us to take a final look at the Bush administration’s record on spending from a statistical point of view. The following three charts show annual average real (or constant dollar) outlays during the tenures of recent presidents. Presidents were in office for either 4 or 8 budget years, except JFK (3 years), LBJ (5 years), Nixon (5 years), and Ford (3 years). The last year of spending that President George W. Bush was responsible for was fiscal 2009. The CBO says that outlays that year were $3.522 trillion. However, $108 billion was spending from the 2009 economic stimulus package, according to the CBO, which Bush was not responsible for. So I have as... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3106720 Sat, 19 Dec 2009 22:26:23 +0100 3106720 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3096828&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FvG1MFG7RDvc%2F By Michael D. TannerPresident Obama gave what seems like his thousandth exclusive health care interview last night, this one to ABC News’s Charles Gibson.  In trying to sell his health care plan, the president warned that if Congress does not pass legislation controlling health care costs, the federal government “will go bankrupt.”  He also warned that unless health care is reformed, “your premiums will go up.”  The president is absolutely correct about that.  The only problem is that, according to the president’s own chief health care actuary, the bills that Congress is now considering do nothing to restrain either federal health care spending or total health care costs.  In fact, Rick Foster, chief actuary at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) says that... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3096828 Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:48:43 +0100 3096828 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3096833&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F1qB8tjkB-e8%2F By Michael F. CannonJon Walker at FireDogLake says I’ve got the wrong smoking gun: The smoking gun was a manual put out by the CBO in May…It spelled out exactly how much regulation was “too much” regulation. It explained what was the magical threshold that would cause [CBO director] Doug Elmendorf to declare some private market part of the government budget. Now, I’m angry about this for different reasons than the Cato Institute. I think it is insane that there could be any level of regulation that would make the private market part of the federal budget. Either the money is going through the federal treasury or it is not. I don’t think the the CBO director should have the power to see gray areas on this issue…There is no real logic to it, he simply decided what h... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3096833 Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:52:07 +0100 3096833 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3092673&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fl1yte5YcJcI%2F By Michael F. CannonThis weekend, the Congressional Budget Office released “a very strange memo” titled, “Budgetary Treatment of Proposals to Regulate Medical Loss Ratios.”  You wouldn’t know it from the title, but that little memo is the smoking gun that shows how congressional Democrats have very carefully hidden more than half the cost of their health care bills. First, a little history.  Like both the House and Senate bills, the Clinton health plan would have mandated that individuals and employers purchase private insurance.  In its 1994 score of the Clinton plan, Bob Reischauer’s CBO included those mandated “private” payments in the federal budget –- i.e., as federal revenues and federal expenditures. And yet, none of the CBO scores of this ye... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3092673 Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:49:13 +0100 3092673 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3092674&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FKJKti0Mgo5Q%2F By Michael F. CannonOn Day #179 of the ObamaCare Cost Estimate Watch, Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) wrote in The Winchester Star of his involvement in the Senate health care debate: At the start of this debate I was one of eight senators who called on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to post the text and complete budget scores of the health-care bill on a public web site for review at least 72 hours prior to both the first vote and final passage. This request was agreed to, affording proper transparency in the process. On the contrary, as I explain in this Richmond Times-Dispatch oped, Reid did not comply with Webb’s request. Indeed, a memo recently issued by the Congressional Budget Office suggests that Reid has been working very hard to conceal the legislation’s full cost all along.... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3092674 Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:43:35 +0100 3092674 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3071132&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FDr-VY5JMWbQ%2F By Michael D. TannerSenate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has announced that he has reached a super secret compromise on how to deal with the so-called public option for health reform.  While Reid said the agreement was too important to actually tell anyone what is in it, most of the details have been leaked to the press. Rather than set-up a completely government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurance, Congress would establish a program similar to the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program (FEHBP), which currently covers government workers, including Members of Congress.  The FEHBP offers a variety of private insurance plans under a program managed by the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM).  Each year OPM uses the Federal procurement process to solicit bids from... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3071132 Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:58:14 +0100 3071132 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3056885&cid=t_163838_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FLdYhC8jK_Cg%2F A new report from the Congressional Budget Office examines promotional spending by drugmakers, including an analysis of direct-to-consumer advertising in recent years. For those in the know, there are probably few surprises. Nonetheless, the summary is interesting and worth noting. Here are some highlights… - In 2008, spending on DTC ads totaled $4.7 billion, nearly one-fourth of industry spending for all promotional activities. Promotional spending, which includes detailing, ad journals, meetings and DTC ads, was $20.5 billion last year, or 10.8 percent of US sales last year. The CBO, which says spending was typically between 10 percent and 12 percent since the early 1990’s, cited sales data reported by PhRMA, which presumably relies on annual reports. DTC advertising has decl... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3056885 Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:57:10 +0100 3056885 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3008069&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FKau_XyoF57Y%2F Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has finally unveiled his massive 2,074-page health care bill.  The Congressional Budget Office reports that the insurance-expansion provisions would cost the feds $848 billion over 10 years.  To raise those funds, the bill would tax wages, medical devices, prescription drugs, sick people, health insurance premiums (twice), HSAs, FSAs, HRAs, and — why not? — cosmetic surgery.  The remainder would supposedly come from $491 billion of Medicare cuts, even though Medicare’s chief actuary says such cuts are “unrealistic” and “doubtful.”  But don’t worry.  Somehow, this thing’s gonna reduce the deficit. Of course, that $848 billion only accounts for part of the federal government’s share of t... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3008069 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:05:27 +0100 3008069 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2923236&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FKY3gAJpeA5U%2F In late July, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee passed a new version of PASS ID, the REAL ID revival bill. I’ve posted about various dimensions of it: the national ID question, the politics of PASS ID, whether PASS ID protects privacy, a run-down of the Senate hearing on it, and the inexplicable support of the Center for Democracy and Technology for this national ID law. Three months later, the committee still has not reported the bill, meaning that the public doesn’t get access to the version the committee passed. (A resolution in the House would require committees there to publish amendments to bills within 24 hours.) But the Congressional Budget Office scored the bill this week. That is often a signal that legislation is on the move. So it&#821... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2923236 Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:38:18 +0100 2923236 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2876020&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FE0X1L4H-IWA%2F Sen. Max Baucus’s (D-MT) health care overhaul would cost more than $2 trillion.  It would expand the deficit.  But he has carefully and methodically hidden those facts – so well that he has completely hoodwinked nearly all the major media. The media are reporting that the Baucus bill would reduce the deficit by $81 billion over 10 years.  Wrong. The Baucus bill assumes that Congress will allow the “sustainable growth rate” cuts in Medicare’s physician payments to occur beginning in 2012.  Yet Congress has routinely and repeatedly blocked those cuts, making Baucus’s assumption preposterous.  The CBO handled the issue delicately, but essentially said, “Sure, provided that the sun rises in the west in 2012, then yes, this bill would reduce the deficit.” That means Baucus ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2876020 Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:34:44 +0100 2876020 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2876021&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fymn1_XTNQfs%2F The Congressional Budget Office released a report this week that revealed that the proposed health care bill would not increase the deficit.  But is it that simple? Cato health care policy experts have examined the bill and added up the costs. Here are a few things they have found: Congress has been cooking the books: “When it comes to the health care reform debate…honest budgeting is nowhere to be seen.” Costs will only decrease if we give market forces room to breathe. How some in Congress are hiding the true costs of the health care overhaul. Healthy Competition: What’s Holding Back Health Care and How to Free It Podcast: Do You Smell the Books Congress is Cookin’? (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2876021 Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:33:40 +0100 2876021 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2820204&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fu4DpfiwkIDU%2F As my colleague Jeffrey Miron noted earlier today, when grilled by George Stephanopolous on whether the so-called “individual mandate” is a tax increase, Obama replied, “Nobody considers that a tax increase….You can’t just make up that language and decide that that’s called a tax increase…My critics say everything is a tax increase.” Where do Obama’s critics get these wacky ideas?  From a bunch of nobodies, that’s who! Princeton economist Uwe Reinhardt, quoted by Larry Summers (1987): [Just because] the fiscal flows triggered by mandate would not flow directly through the public budgets does not detract from the measure’s status of a bona fide tax. Economist Larry Summers, Obama’s National Economic Council chair (1... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2820204 Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:05:14 +0100 2820204 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2803886&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FlMgOXjofQRg%2F The Student Aid and Fiscal Responsiblilty Act will probably be approved by the House of Representatives today, and to push it along the bill’s sponsor, Rep. George Miller (D-CA), makes clear for whom he is working: Let’s remember whose voices really matter here. It’s time to listen to our students and our families. First of all, do the voices of taxpayers not matter at all? You know, the folks who are going to foot the bill for all this largesse? Oh yeah – concentrated benefits, diffuse costs. And have students and their families really been trees falling in the wilderness with no one to hear them? With inflation-adjusted aid per full-time-equivalent student (table 3) rising from $4,454 in 1987 to $10,392 in 2007 — a 134 percent increase — it sure does... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2803886 Thu, 17 Sep 2009 15:37:04 +0100 2803886 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2803894&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fx-wmoGX3J4Q%2F With the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA) likely to be voted on by the full House or Representatives today, the media is finally giving some space to debate over the bill. Unfortunately, the New York Times only pays attention to the parts it likes, writing in an editorial today that: The private lenders and those who do their bidding in Congress have recently taken issue with a Congressional Budget Office analysis that showed that the bill would save about $87 billion over the next 10 years. They argue, absurdly, for example, that the savings would be smaller if the system were analyzed under accounting rules other than the ones that the federal government is required to use. The aim is to mislead taxpayers and members of Congress into believing that the C.B.O. estimate... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2803894 Wed, 16 Sep 2009 18:29:56 +0100 2803894 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2681877&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fsj4NH13BlW0%2F The Congressional Budget Office estimates that current health care “reform” legislation could cost around a trillion dollars over the coming decade.  But that number likely is low.  Stephen T. Parente of HSI Network LLC says the CBO did not use the most current data.  HSI figures the cost could be double the CBO estimate.  Warns Parente: The biggest player in the health-care debate right now isn’t Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, or even President Obama. It’s the Congressional Budget Office, which is responsible for estimating the costs of proposed legislation. After the director of the CBO testified on July 16 that none of the health-reform bills in the House or Senate would reduce the rate of increase in federal spending on health care, congressional efforts fell into d... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2681877 Fri, 07 Aug 2009 14:04:21 +0100 2681877 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2610882&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FbOKerDexnw8%2F This is too good.  Directly from the ABC News blog post, “CBO Sees No Federal Cost Savings in Dem Health Plans:” Here’s a blow to President Obama and Democrats pressing health care reform. One of the main arguments made by the President and others for investing in health reform now is that it will save the federal government money in the long run by containing costs. Turns out that may not be the case, according to Doug Elmendorf, director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Answering questions from Democrat Kent Conrad of North Dakota at a hearing of the Senate Budget Committee today, Elmendorf said CBO does not see health care cost savings in either of the partisan Democratic bills currently in Congress. Conrad:  Dr. Elmendorf, I am going to really put you... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2610882 Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:09:13 +0100 2610882 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2517206&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FXZPaps-1-Nw%2F The Heritage Foundation has a chart up on its blog, showing defense spending as a percentage of gross domestic product and declaring that “Obama plan cuts defense spending to pre-9/11 levels.” This is a standard rhetorical device for defense hawks (see the Wall Street Journal editorial page, Mitt Romney and lots of others) so it’s worth pointing out that it’s misleading. The unfortunate truth is that Obama is increasing non-war defense spending this year and seems likely to increase it at least by inflation in the near future. It’s true that defense spending will probably decline as a percentage of GDP, assuming the economy recovers. But that’s because GDP grows. Ours is more than six times bigger than it was in 1950.  Meanwhile, we spend more on de... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2517206 Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:09:59 +0100 2517206 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2510271&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FEX0rLLmjFCE%2F The Wall Street Journal’s Numbers Guy tackles the question: The Census Bureau estimates that the number of uninsured amounts to 45.7 million people. But the agency might be over-counting by millions due to faulty assumptions… Even though legislation won’t cover many of them, illegal immigrants are especially difficult to enumerate: Few raise their hands to be counted. Prof. [Jonathan] Gruber estimates they make up about 13% of the uninsured today, or nearly six million people of that 45 million number… Of the rest, some people are eligible for health insurance but don’t know it and many can afford it but don’t want it. About 43% of uninsured nonelderly adults have incomes greater than 2.5 times the poverty level, according to a report released Tuesday by... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2510271 Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:53:10 +0100 2510271 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2424033&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F3dH6-XcTItA%2F Over at Salon, Michael Lind takes me to task for raising the alarm about the latest Social Security Trustees report showing that a) Social Security’s insolvency date is growing closer, and b) the system’s unfunded liabilities have increased dramatically since last year’s report. Like most of those who resist having an honest debate about Social security’s finances, Lind relies on a combination of economic flim-flam and political sophistry to obscure the true problem. For example, Lind points out that when I quote the Trustee’s assertion that the system’s unfunded liabilities currently top $17.5 trillion, that “assumes there are no changes made between now and eternity.” Well, duh! All estimates of US budget deficits assume that spending won’t be cut or taxes raised enough... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2424033 Tue, 19 May 2009 15:26:17 +0100 2424033 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2416803&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FcRUH9mrbSMI%2F Last Monday, when lobbyists for the six biggest health care industry groups joined President Obama to announce their support for reducing health care spending by $2 trillion over 10 years, I penned and voiced my suspicion that the real motivation was to pressure the Congressional Budget Office to assume that Democrats’ health care reforms would reduce spending, despite the lack of evidence.  My wife said that hypothesis sounded a little . . . conspiratorial. Last Thursday, when it was revealed that there was no actual agreement and that the White House basically manipulated the industry to get a week’s worth of good health care press, I started to doubt whether strong-arming the CBO was really the goal of that media stunt.  Then Jonathan Cohn set me straight. In an article fo... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2416803 Mon, 18 May 2009 14:33:50 +0100 2416803 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2414747&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fvoum9yQVfCs%2F On Monday, the Obama administration held a well-publicized love-fest with lobbyists for the health care industry.  It turns out that rather than a “game-changer,” the event was a fraud.  And the industry got burned. At the time, President Obama called it a “a watershed event in the long and elusive quest for health care reform“: Over the next 10 years — from 2010 to 2019 — [these industry lobbyists] are pledging to cut the rate of growth of national health care spending by 1.5 percentage points each year — an amount that’s equal to over $2 trillion. By an amazing coincidence, $2 trillion is just enough to pay for Obama’s proposed government takeover of the health care sector. Yet The New York Times reports that isn’t the magnitude of sp... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2414747 Fri, 15 May 2009 17:52:08 +0100 2414747 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2386828&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FyYxaQssHdR0%2F So far the Obama administration has been enjoying the ultimate fiscal free lunch.  Massive borrowing, massive spending, lower taxes, and low interest rates. Alas, all good things must come to an end. Reports the New York Times: The nation’s debt clock is ticking faster than ever — and Wall Street is getting worried. As the Obama administration racks up an unprecedented spending bill for bank bailouts, Detroit rescues, health care overhauls and stimulus plans, the bond market is starting to push up the cost of trillions of dollars in borrowing for the government. Last week, the yield on 10-year Treasury notes rose to its highest level since November, briefly touching 3.17 percent, a sign that investors are demanding larger returns on the masses of United States debt being issued to ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2386828 Mon, 04 May 2009 12:50:52 +0100 2386828 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1546986&cid=t_163838_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2F320500932%2F The Congressional Budget Office has released its long-awaited assessment of the cost of a Senate biogenerics bill and found that the legislation, if enacted, would reduce total expenditures on biologics in the US by $25 billion between 2009 and 2018. Over that 10-year period, savings would equal roughly 0.5 percent of national spending on prescription drugs, valued at wholesale prices. Moreover, the bill would reduce budget deficits - or increase surpluses, depending on your point of view - by $6.6 billion over the same period. A few other CBO calculations: Direct spending by the federal government would decrease by $46 million over the 2009-2013 period, and by $5.9 billion over the 2009-2018 period; most of those savings would accrue to the Medicare program. Federal revenues would increa... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1546986 Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:48:53 +0100 1546986 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1522012&cid=t_163838_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F06%2Fpharma-should-demand-same-treatment.html Imagine a government report about pharma that glosses over the rough edges. Imagine a report where the most critical issues in pharma are reluctant doctors, difficulty measuring ROI of drugs, and the criteria for the quality of drugs being solely dependent on whether users take them correctly.Well, no such pharma report exists (the opposite is true - pharma is put under a microscope and excoriated harshly by the government, media, activist groups, etc. for even the slightest "deviation"), but in Health IT, it is a different matter.In the milquetoast May 2008 report "Evidence on the Costs and Benefits of Health Information Technology" (PDF), the Congressional Budget Office essentially whitewashes the downsides and difficulties of Health IT. All of the potential (and largely unrealized) bene... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1522012 Mon, 16 Jun 2008 12:25:00 +0100 1522012