Bumper sticker politics that just won't fit on a bumper sticker

“Remove the insurance companies from between you and your doctor— capping what they can force you to pay in out of pocket expenses, co-pays and deductibles, and giving you the peace of mind you will be covered for the care you need, if get sick, or if you change or lose your job.”

Sexy, no? That’s the message that the Democrats want to get out over the summer regarding health care.

In a briefing with reporters Thursday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) acknowledged that Democrats have been losing the message war "a little bit" to Republicans. He said Democrats have had problems communicating with the bill as it changed in the legislative process.

“We’re responsible for putting together a plan. We've been focused on that,” Hoyer said. "Republicans have been free to conjure up whatever they want.”

If by conjuring, Hoyer means that that the Republicans' opposition to Obamacare has been based, in part, on the CBO’s deficit projection of $239 billion over the next decade, then yes, they would be guilty of conjuring.



This might be a little easier to read at 65 mph.

But the White House is not alone in asserting that the CBO's analysis is off-base. None other than a Bush-era economic advisor (which would alone qualify him as someone familiar with debt and deficits) takes a look at the CBO's numbers and claims they got wrong... really wrong"

Nearly lost in all of the publicity about the Congressional Budget Office’s finding that proposed health care legislation would worsen the current-law deficit by $239 billion over the next 10 years is something far more troubling: The proposed legislation would actually worsen the imbalance in federal health care programs by more than $800 billion over the next 10 years — and far more thereafter.


CBO’s analysis shows quite clearly that the proposed changes to federal health care commitments would worsen the deficit by $1.042 trillion, with proposed health care savings netting only $219 billion. The net effect of these health care “reforms,” therefore, is to dig the financial hole in federal health care programs deeper — not by $239 billion but by $820 billion over the next decade.

Something to remember when gang reconvenes in September.