(Reuters) - House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said on Thursday that sweeping healthcare overhaul legislation was on track for passage by the U.S. House of Representatives and would cut the deficit by more than $100 billion in the first 10 years.
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Expanding healthcare coverage will cost about $940 billion over 10 years. But revenue increases and savings in the bill will cover those costs, and Hoyer said Congressional Budget Office estimates to be released on Thursday would show the deficit would be reduced by $1 trillion in the subsequent decade.
The healthcare overhaul will result in "the largest deficit reduction of any bill adopted by Congress since 1993," Hoyer said. An aide said the amount of deficit reduction in the first 10 years would likely be between $120 billion and $130 billion.
President Barack Obama and congressional Democratic leaders have been struggling to finish work on a final package of changes to a Senate-passed version of healthcare reform and line up the 216 House votes needed to pass it.
Hoyer said the effort is picking up momentum.
"We're on track for a Sunday vote," Hoyer said.
HA, what joke, I’ve never heard of an entitlement reducing the deficit by anything let alone $1 Trillion dollars.
And by momentum I guess he means, figuring out ways to pass bills without voting on them. Note to all voters, the Dems are forcefully expanding the government under the ruse (ie lies) of helping (some) people.
Ask Massachussets how they like their healthcare, or maybe we should ask Idaho if they want healthcare forced upon them. Google Idaho and healthcare and see what you find.
The Republicans have been expanding government for years and have used all of the voting practices they now accuse the Democrats of using. WAKE UP! Millions of uninsured Americans is not acceptable! Whatever the cost, we must find a way to pay for it — after we manage to pay for the massive debts needlessly run up by the Bush administration.
It’s too bad we can’t all have the CBO do our accounting chores. Consider the following grievous assumptions the CBO makes in its assessment of the Health Care bill:
(1) Their cost estimate doesn’t include $400 billion for the Medicare “doctor fix” that Congress will have to fund separately.
(2) It includes $100 billion from Social Security, even though Social Security is already out of money and having to cash in IOU’s from the U.S. Treasury.
(3) The CBO assumes employers who decide not to buy insurance for their workers will pay the 8% fine, pay these workers enough extra to buy their own insurance, and also pay Social Security and payroll taxes on this extra money – even though the net result will be more costly to the employer than just buying the health insurance. Are you kidding?
The CBO may be non-partisan, but it still scores the legislation according to specific criteria established by the Democrats and Obama. They should use common-sense criteria because as it is they are clearly NOT non-partisan.
I think the American people deserve an honest appraisal of this legislation.
“HA, what joke, I’ve never heard of an entitlement reducing the deficit by anything let alone $1 Trillion dollars.”-Andymc7
First of all Andy thats only 1/10th of trillion, it takes 1000 billions to make a trillion but anyway, tell me andy are you with the guys in this video? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFOnG9a1Pzw
@Andymc7: maybe that’s because this isn’t an entitlement issue. People will be paying for their premiums, although there will be subsidies for the poor.
And there was already a vote, which was passed, if you recall. There will also be a vote, probably on Sunday, for the changes agreed upon with the Senate.
Seriously, you should try to educate yourself, & stop believing that GOP talking points are facts.
BURF>>>>You are as clueless as they hoped you were if you dont think this is entitlement and your taxes wont go up! HERE IS THE SCENARIO>>>Wont be fully enacted until 2014, that means they have at least 2 yrs to tax the daylights out of us saying it is for healthcare, when they will spend that money on other stuff, then raise taxes again to cover-up what they spent and pay for this abomination! By the way when did everything in the world hinge on equality?? If I go to college and get an education and a better job, why is it my duty to pay some lazy degenerate who didnt want to go to college to advance themselves? Again it is entitlement because those lazy people believe and know the govt will pick up the tab to bail them out!!
All human beings are equal in worth. The fact that some people don’t believe this doesn’t make it any less true. In our time we are still stuck on taking care of “number 1″, that style of life no longer serves us when we are now so globally interconnected.
We have to start thinking in terms of what benefits the most people. We also need to invest in education. The time for “leave me the hell alone” is almost at an end. As many of us as there are in the world, we have no choice but to cooperate with each other. The only other choice is to kill each other until there are few enough left that the rest can be greedy with their resources. It’s an option. But it’s a bloody and ugly one. Letting people die for lack of care even when we know we could make the system work for everyone, is just as bad as putting a gun to the heads of the sick and pulling the trigger.
I’d rather just pay more taxes, and work on myself and how I relate to my fellow human beings. This is far less about money than it is about doing what is human and what is righ
