Foolish Congressional Accounting Made Simple
By Armstrong Williams
A good friend of mine came up to me the other day and said, “Hey, I’ll be a millionaire in ten years.”
Now, I know this guy isn’t a millionaire. He can’t possibly make more than $100,000 a year, and I know he has a big home he’s paying off and a few kids in school. So I said, “Really? Do you have a rich uncle who’s dying soon?”
He replied, “Nope. My friend, I’ll be a millionaire if you don’t count any of my expenses. Yeah, if you take out what I owe on my house, my car payments, health expenses, taxes, I’ll be a bona fide millionaire in ten years. It’s called ‘congressional accounting,’ man, it’s the new way of doing math.’”
Of course, this little exchange didn’t really happen, as I don’t know anyone who does their expenses that way, except for the senators and congressmen I’ve met when it’s our money they’re playing with.
But that’s exactly how Congress gets to its “cost savings” on this monstrous, trillion-dollar health care bill. It’s how Congress claims they’re going to make us all millionaires like my imaginary friend, when in fact they’re handing us the most expensive entitlement in in our nation’s history.
It’s easy to “save money” over 10 years, as the bill’s proponents deceitfully claim, if you’re fudging the numbers. See, Congress is going to collect revenues (taxes, fees) for four years to save up for the benefits that don’t fully kick in until 2014.
What a terrible bargain. I don’t know anyone who would start making car payments today for a car they can’t drive off the lot till 2014, but that’s basically what Congress is doing with this health-care reform. “Pay now,” they say “We’ll start giving what you’re paying for later…in four years.”
That’s it! This was the issue so urgent it needed to pass before Christmas?
If we all made budgets the way Congress did, no one would have any debt-we’d all be liquid with cash and wouldn’t have a care in the world. (Hell, if we did accounting the way Congress did, there would have been no need for this reform because everyone could afford health care!) But here in the real world, it doesn’t work that way. And, what Congress isn’t telling you is that in their world, it doesn’t work that way either. At some point, we’re all going to pay, because accounting gimmicks may work to get this health legislation passed quickly in the middle of the night, but someday we’ll all get stuck with the bill.
The United States Senate is marching towards history, but not the kind they will welcome once the dust settles from the fallout of the health care reform debate. There are so many political favors buried in this bill that reporters simply don’t have the time to uncover them all, or quite possibly they are just in bed with healthcare pushing Democrats.
And yet, the American people see this albatross for what it truly is - a massive expansion of government. Why do both parties fixate on and equate more power centralized in this modern-day Sodom as a public good? And, are we voters so naïve or numb to this fact that when we remain silent, politicians see that as acquiescent approval?
I am utterly amazed at the sentimentality Democrats and President Obama are expressing in the final hours before America’s financial Armageddon: Proponents invoking Ted Kennedy as if his ghost meandered those halls late at night with only the Democratic caucus. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) early Tuesday morning pensively stating the Senate will be forever remembered for such heroic acts by the Democrats. Even Obama proudly defied anyone to point out differences between his campaign promises on health reform and what will ultimately pass - a nod to his omniscience, some suspect.
Poor President Barrack. He just doesn’t get it. He piously declares he has “excellent coverage” as president. He doesn’t need reform. He’s fighting for those who don’t have coverage. Yet in every interview and public appearance, the benefits of this measure are conveniently excluded or glossed over with tough talk of nailing “fat cat” insurance companies. Instead, the president parrots a familiar line every Democrat in Washington is asserting, “We’re making history!” To him, passage of this bill is more about securing a “W” in his column, not moving sound public policy. Don’t believe me? Then if it were so important and so monumental, why move a bill in as little time as it takes Congress to name a post office? Why not wait for Congress’s budget office to say how much it will cost? And why for heaven’s sake do you enact a bill that begins to tax Americans immediately to pay for it, yet doesn’t offer them the first dime in benefits for several years? Is that courageous? Is that historic?
Not to mention the sweetheart deals that are packed into this monstrous bill that will undoubtedly develop into having a mind of their own. The Louisiana Purchase is one of the sweeter deals of the sweethearts.
Senator Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana, like many politicians, sold her vote on this bill for $300 million in the form of dollars matched by the federal government for Medicaid services -which is paid for, in part, out of state coffers; hence, the need for sweetheart deals.
Unfortunately still, such shadiness has the potential to completely tank this bill.
For the state of Nebraska, things get even sweeter. Senator Bill Nelson was able to talk our federal government into paying 100% of their Medicaid bill indefinitely. What is going to happen when other statesbegin to sue based on the equal protection clause? They won’t be getting nearly the same amount of money as the government.
Landrieu and Nelson just sold out the American people. When will America rise up and realize that this bill isn’t for the people?
Meanwhile, back in reality, rank-and-file Democrats are headed for the exits. In the past few weeks, a handful of old bull Democrats announced their retirements, not willing to face the voters in 2010 for their gluttonous giving-in to Pelosi’s at-all-costs leftist agenda.
Others are simply trading in their jerseys for the other team, another sign Pelosi as speaker is the wrong way to go. Rep. Parker Griffith out of Alabama announced his switch just yesterday; is he the only Democrat listening to his constituents?
The Christmas of 2009 is rapidly shaping up as a Black Friday for Democrats. They confidently stride into the chamber, determined they are headed toward Destiny’s banquet table, yet the voters know otherwise; they are foolishly striding toward defeat.
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[...] bobfarley wrote an interesting post today. Here’s a quick excerpt(Hell, if we did baccounting/b the way Congress did, there would have been no need for this reform because everyone could afford health care!) But here in the real world, it doesn’t work that way. And, what Congress isn’t telling you is … [...]