In the final days before Democrats in Congress passed ObamaCare socialized medicine, they rallied around a last-minute estimate that ObamaCare would cost “only” $940 billion.
The estimate, from the Congressional Budget Office, was based on a series of unrealistic assumptions about medical spending over the next few years, but it gave Democrats political cover to vote for ObamaCare.
Later, however, the CBO “adjusted” its estimate. It said ObamaCare might cost an additional $115 billion.
And now, the director of the CBO, Doug Elmendorf, is stating flat-out that ObamaCare may actually make our out-of-control federal budget deficits even worse.
Writing on the CBO’s website, Mr. Elmendorf declared, “The rising costs of health care will put tremendous pressure on the federal budget during the next few decades and beyond. In CBO’s judgment, the health legislation enacted earlier this year does not substantially diminish that pressure. In fact, CBO estimated that the health legislation will increase the federal budgetary commitment to health care … by nearly $400 billion during the 2010-2019 period.”