Price Tag Increases on Target Dems' Healthcare Takeover

FYI, a version of the release below went out to the following districts: Ami Bera (CA-03); Tim Bishop (NY-01); John Boccieri (OH-16); Leonard Boswell (IA-03); Allen Boyd (FL-02); Paula Brooks (OH-12); John Callahan (PA-15); Dennis Cardoza (CA-18); Russ Carnahan (MO-03); Chris Carney (PA-10); Gerry Connolly (VA-11); Jim Costa (CA-20); Kathy Dahlkemper (PA-03); Suzan DelBene (WA-08); Joe Donnelly (IN-02); Steve Driehaus (OH-01); Bill Foster (IL-14); Joe Garcia (FL-25); Gabby Giffords (AZ-08); Alan Grayson (FL-02); John Hall (NY-19); Debbie Halvorson (IL-11); Denny Heck (WA-03); Martin Heinrich (NM-01); Baron Hill (IN-09); Jim Himes (CT-04); Steve Kagen (WI-08); Paul Kanjorski (PA-11); Mary Jo Kilroy (OH-15); Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ-01); Ron Klein (FL-22); Suzanne Kosmas (FL-24); Betsy Markey (CO-04); Jerry McNerney (CA-11); Harry Mitchell (AZ-05); Stephene Moore (KS-03) Patrick Murphy (PA-08); Scott Murphy (NY-20); Bill Owens (NY-23); Ed Perlmutter (CO-07); Tom Perriello (VA-05); Earl Pomeroy (ND-AL); Steve Pougnet (CA-45); Ciro Rodriguez (TX-23); John Salazar (CO-03); Loretta Sanchez (CA-47); Mark Schauer (MI-07); Kurt Schrader (OR-05); Carol Shea-Porter (NH-01); John Spratt (SC-05); Betty Sutton (OH-13); Dina Titus (NV-03); Niki Tsongas (MA-05); Trent Van Haaften (IN-08) Tim Walz (MN-01); Tom White (NE-02); and David Wu (OR-01).

Price Tag Increases on Allen Boyd’s Healthcare Takeover
Gov’t Agency Says Cost Likely $115 Billion Higher than Advertised

Washington- Not even two months after passing his party’s government takeover of healthcare, the fallout just keeps getting worse for Allen Boyd and his fellow Democrats. With taxpayers pushing back against the hefty price tag and major employers seeing revenue dry up as they cope with the cost, Boyd and his colleagues were hoping the bad news would end soon.

Not so fast. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office says that the legislation will cost $115 billion more than originally projected, driving the price tag to nearly $1 trillion.

“Congressional Budget Office estimates released Tuesday predict the health care overhaul will likely cost about $115 billion more in discretionary spending over ten years than the original cost projections.

“The additional spending — if approved over the years by Congress — would bring the total estimated cost of the overhaul to about $1 trillion.

“The Congressional Budget Office expects the federal agencies to spend $10 billion to $20 billion over 10 years on administrative costs to implement the overhaul. The CBO expects Congress to spend an additional $105 billion over 10 years to fund discretionary programs in the overhaul.” (Jennifer Haberkorn, “CBO Ups Health Care Cost Projections,” Politico, 5/11/10)

“After defending their healthcare takeover in a last-ditch effort to save their political careers, Democrats like Allen Boyd are now on the hook for even more spending than originally thought,” said NRCC Communications Director Ken Spain. “Boyd followed Nancy Pelosi and his party bosses off a cliff to pass a government spending spree disguised as healthcare reform while claiming that it was fiscally responsible. With the latest news that the healthcare takeover’s price tag has almost broken the trillion dollar mark, there’s little hope for Boyd to salvage any credibility when it comes to defending his support for this debacle.”

There’s been no word yet on whether Washington Democrats are still standing by White House advisor David Axelrod’s statements that Boyd and his fellow Democrats will be better off once the American people find out what’s in the bill:

“I think as the American people become familiar with what this program is and what it isn’t, they’re going to be very, very happy with it.” (Rick Klein, “Axelrod: Public Will Grow ‘Very, Very Happy’ with Health Care Law,” ABC News, 3/30/10)

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