printHas any bill passed by Washington ever come in on or under budget? Of course not, but faith runs eternal among the faithful. Cato Institute’s Michael Cannon has said what I did in my last column, “Heeere’s Health-Scare”: “Ultimately, the CBOafs’ forecast is only as good as their premise, which is faulty” (my version). “The Democrats have required the CBO to adopt some really unrealistic assumptions … even if those projections are accurate, politics gets hold of that program. And people start demanding more out of that program” (Cannon’s).
Here are some facts from a research paper authored by FreedomWorks Foundation:
* “The Medicare Program: When Medicare was instituted in 1965, there was no Congressional Budget Office. Instead, in 1967 House Ways and Means analysts estimated the cost of the program. Medicare, they predicted, would cost $12 billion in 1990. (1) They were wrong—by a staggering factor of 10. The actual spending in 1990 was $110 billion. (2) And Medicare costs continue to skyrocket. Through the first 9 months of 2009, Medicare has cost taxpayers $314 billion and that price tag continues to grow by 10%. (3)
In the case of the Medicare Program, the government estimate was off by over 816%. If the CBO estimate for the Senate health care bill is off by the same percentage, then the price of reform may be as high as $7.74 trillion.”
No discussion pointing out the inaccuracy of what Congressional leaders promise in promoting their legislation is complete without revisiting Teddy Kennedy and his statements on the Immigration Act of 1965.
“First, our cities will not be flooded with a million immigrants annually. Under the proposed bill, the present level of immigration remains substantially the same…. Secondly, the ethnic mix of this country will not be upset…. Contrary to the charges in some quarters, [the bill] will not inundate America with immigrants from any one country or area, or the most populated and deprived nations of Africa and Asia…. In the final analysis, the ethnic pattern of immigration under the proposed measure is not expected to change as sharply as the critics seem to think…. It will not cause American workers to lose their jobs.”
Case closed.
Figures lie and liars figure.
It just may be that nearly all Americans are aware (at least at some subconscious level) that we are approaching an economic singularity (default and/or hyperinflation). Therefore, one might as well “grab all the gusto” one can and the hell with worrying about the price tag. The asteroid is going to hit in a few years so what does it matter? “Apres moi le deluge”. A proper free market should not allow this type of economic thinking to endure – but since the New Deal, America has been driven by consumers and government on eternal, semi-infinite CREDIT. I fail to see how it can be sustained indefinitely but, hell, just a few of us free market cranks think that way.