DemCare Update

So, what's the latest?

Things happen pretty fast when you don't have to worry about things like parliamentary procedure, minority party concerns, or the American public:

Nine months ago, the quarterly party identification gap was 13 points. Now it’s five. Fully 67 percent of likely voters say that their congressman doesn’t represent their best interests. Democratic consultants are whispering to lefty blogs that they genuinely fear losing the House.

None of it matters. You’ll eat this crap sandwich and like it.

“We’ve had a very intense couple of days,” Pelosi said. “After our leadership meeting this morning, our staff engaged with the Senate and the administration staff to review the legislation, suggest legislative language. I think we’re very close to reconciliation.”…

House Democrats are reluctant to abandon elements of their legislation favored by liberals but rejected by Senate moderates, but face doing just that. That means no new government insurance plan, which the House wanted but the Senate omitted, and changes to the House’s preferred payment scheme. The House wants to raise income taxes on individuals making more than $500,000 and couples over $1 million. The Senate would slap a new tax on high-cost insurance plans. Although the Obama administration supports the Senate’s insurance tax as a cost-saver, labor unions, which contribute heavily to Democratic candidates, oppose it.

According to the AP, The One’s ready to tell the House to suck it up on that latter point too. There’s only one thing that stands between us and ObamaCare now, my friends: Blanche Lincoln’s terrible, terrible poll numbers. Er, I mean Blanche Lincoln’s inspiring devotion to governmental ethics.

Dude, I think it’s over.

Interestingly, GOP Rep. Eric Cantor seems to think he can pick off enough Dems in the House to cause problems. I'm not buying it. In the end, the one thing we can count on with elected Democrats is that they'll be bought off by their leadership rather than stand on their 'principles'.

And that brings us to the fact that DemCare's multiple trillion dollar price tag is going to be far, far higher:

President Obama has given House and Senate leaders the green light to eschew the transparency that comes with a formal conference to merge the chambers' health care bills, and instead have informal closed door talks that will be inaccessible to the media. The clear message is that speed is more important than anything else, including President Obama's campaign pledge to have health care negotiations broadcast on C-SPAN to "enlist the American people in the process." This need for speed isn't being driven by a desire to give Americans health care coverage as soon as possible -- those benefits don't kick in until 2014 -- but entirely a result of Obama's own vanity and political calculations, because he wants to be able to sign a bill before his State of the Union Address.

As I've noted on a number of occasions, the CBO cost estimates that get quoted in the media understate the true cost of the health care bills because Democrats have employed a number of accounting gimmicks to get the number they want. While the frequently-quoted number may not be representative of the true cost of the legislation, the White House decided at some point that the number that does get quoted shouldn't be higher than $900 billion. Majority Leader Harry Reid found a formula that enabled the CBO to churn out the number $871 billion as the cost of the final Senate bill. However, the comparable number in the CBO analysis of the House bill was $1.055 trillion (the subsidies alone cost $166 billion more).

So, the question is, what will be the cost of getting liberals to fall in line with a bill that does not include a public option?

You've been warned. Here's a quick summary of all the taxes and fees that you're about to pay in order to enact the worse possible health care option:

House-passed Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3962):
- $460.5 billion over 10 years from a 5.4 percent Surtax on individuals making more than $500,000 and families earning more than $1 million (begins 2011)
- $135 billion as part of an 8 percent tax of a firm’s payroll ($750,000 or more) and a lower rate if firm payroll is between $500,000 $749,999 (begins 2013)
- $33 billion as part of a 2.5 tax on modified adjusted gross income (AGI) for those individuals that do fail to secure “acceptable” health coverage (begins 2014)
- $20 billion from a 2.5 percent excise tax on medical devices (begins 2013)
- $17.1 billion in corporate information reporting requirements (applies to payments made after December 31, 2011)
- $13.3 billion from a cap on Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) at $2,500 and indexed forward to the CPI-U (begins 2011; currently there is no cap)
- $7.5 billion for the limitation of tax treaty benefits related to U.S. withholding tax imposed on deductible related-party payments
- $6 billion from a “worldwide interest allocation” repeal (begins 2011)
- $5.7 billion as a result of codifying the economic substance doctrine and imposing penalties on underpayments
- $5 billion for reforming the definition of medical expenses under FSAs, health savings accounts, Archer Medical Savings Accounts, and health reimbursement arrangements, including the exemption of over-the-counter medications prescribed by a doctor (begins 2011)
- $2.2 billion as part of an end to the Medicare Part D subsidy (begins 2013)

Senate-passed Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act (H.R. 3590):
- $148.9 billion as part of a 40 percent nondeductible excise tax on insurance plans of more than $8,500 for individuals and $23,000 for families and indexed to the CPI-U plus 1 percentage point (begins 2013)
- $101 billion in yearly nondeductible fees on manufacturers and importers of pharmaceuticals (begins 2010), on manufacturers and importers of medical devices (begins 2011), and health insurance providers (begins 2011)
- $86.8 billion as part of Medicare Payroll tax increase from 1.45 to 2.35 percent for individuals with wages of more than $200,000 and $250,000 for joint filers (begins 2013)
- $28 billion from employer penalties on full-time workers that receive subsidies to purchase coverage through new insurance exchanges
- $17.1 billion in corporate information reporting requirements (applies to payments made after December 31, 2011)
- $15.2 billion from an increase in the floor for deductible medical expenses from 7.5 percent of AGI to 10 percent of AGI and a “carve-out” for those older than 65
- $15 billion in tax penalties on individuals who fail to secure “qualified” health coverage (begins 2014)
- $13.3 billion from a cap on Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) at $2,500 and indexed forward to the CPI-U (begins 2011; currently there is no cap)
- $5.4 billion as part of an end to the Medicare Part D subsidy (begins 2011)
- $5 billion for reforming the definition of medical expenses under FSAs, health savings accounts, Archer Medical Savings Accounts, and health reimbursement arrangements, including the exemption of over-the-counter medications prescribed by a doctor (begins 2011)

And that's just the stuff they've already passed. Who knows what will be added in the current closed-door meetings to reconcile the two bills? Remember, a lot of Dems need to be bought off...isn't it great that you get to pay for it?

There's my two cents.