They Think We’re Fools
Most politicians think us regular citizens are fools. They will tell us lies with a straight face and expect us to accept what they say as fact.
- Disturbingly, the media no longer challenges such assertions…
Not so many years ago, the “fourth estate” could be counted on to dig deep and bring the truth to light. No longer. It is no wonder so-called “news organizations” are dying. WE no longer trust them.
The latest example is the touting of the CBO budget projections associated with the health care reform bill(s) being pushed through Congress. Aside from the fact that there are EXPLICIT caveats that the most current projection is (1) preliminary since all the actual details of the bill are not available and (2) accepts the ASSUMPTIONS of the bill (without assessing the likelihood of those assumptions), there is a more basic question we must ask about these projections:
ARE THE PROJECTED COSTS LIKELY TO BE TRUE?
Without knowing anything more than they are GOVERNMENT PROJECTIONS, I will go out on a limb and say they are DRASTICALLY LOW! When is the last time the government accurately projected the cost of new legislation? In fact, I wonder if it has EVER been right?
The dollar amounts being discussed widely in Congress and on the news are bogus… there’s no reason at all that they will be anywhere close to true. And our “representatives” are basing their VOTES on this false foundation.
Think about this:
When Medicare was passed in 1965, the first year ACTUAL cost was about $3 billion. At that time, they projected the cost in 1990 to be about $12 billion (including adjustments for inflation… they tried to be “conservative” in their forecast).
The actual 1990 cost was $107 billion.
Yes, the actual cost was almost 900% HIGHER than they projected.
The current changes will make Medicare look like a trivial expense. If you want to bet on whether the actual cost will meet the projections, give me a call. I’m looking for some way to make some real money to help me pay for the significantly higher costs of this misguided program since we will have to cough up more money than they are telling us. Count on it.
