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Jeff Goldsmith points out that virtually no one believed President Obama when he promised to enact health care “reform” without adding to the federal budget deficit:
A mid-November Quinnipiac poll found that only 19% of Americans and 35% of his own political party believe health reform will not add to the deficit.
He then goes on to explain the skepticism:
The reason almost no one believes health reform will be deficit neutral is our political system’s lavishly demonstrated inability to say no to anyone.
Next, he provides a well-documented example:
Exhibit A for the prosecution’s case about the inability of our political system to demand sacrifice is the so-called Doctor Fix problem.
This is a reference to the inability of Congress to live with its own “cost-controlling” legislation requiring physician fee cuts if Medicare spending grows faster than the CPI (which it has):
Every year except once (2002), Congress has declined to cut physician fees. The result is a fiscal crater more than $300 billion deep- the equivalent of a huge bad mortgage on the federal balance sheet.
Now, the President and his accomplices in Congress want us to believe that they will suddenly be able to “just say no.” Goldsmith doesn’t believe it. Nor does anyone else with any sense.
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