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Senate health bill is faulty, misleading
The Gazette Opinion Staff
Dec. 3, 2009 11:18 pm
The Senate has created a health care reform bill that will only cost $879 billion for that first 10 years. This was accomplished using financing methods that only real politicians could create. First, pass a separate bill of $300 billion for the “doctors fix” for low Medicare payments. Then, collect taxes and Medicare cuts for four years before paying any benefits. (Where will these collected funds be set aside and not spent in the general funds?)
The $879 billion would come from $314 billion in taxes and $565 billion in Medicare cuts affecting the elderly. Actually, if a complete 10 years of income and benefits were considered, 2014 to 2024, the “national deficit neutral” bill would cost nearly $2.5 trillion!
The bill, by the Democrats in secret behind closed doors, was prepared with no input from the Republicans. So much for transparency and bipartisan support! Apparently no senator, including our Tom Harkin, has read the entire 2,070-page bill. If they did, they would have noticed the $300 million for Sen. Mary Landrieu from Louisiana for her needed vote. (Outside Congress, this would be a criminal offense of bribery.)
Please contact Sen. Harkin and tell him to bring the bill out into the light!
Jack McDermott
Toddville
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