As skepticism about the president's health-care reform effort
increases on Capitol Hill, the Obama administration has launched a new
phase of its strategy aimed to drastically increase public pressure on
Congress.Late Friday, the Congressional Budget Office delivered an assessment
of one of the House versions of the health care bill, which said it
would add $239 billion to the deficit if passed. "We do not see the
sort of fundamental changes that would be necessary to reduce the
trajectory of federal health spending by a significant amount and, on
the contrary, the legislation significantly expands the federal
responsibility for health care costs," the CBO's director Douglas
Elmendorf said last week.Elmendorf said long-term costs would rise at an unsustainable pace
even if the legislation doesn't add to the federal deficit immediately.
In his effort to reshape how Americans receive health care, Obama
refuses to accept a tax on high-cost health insurance plans as part of
the overhaul.The Obama administration officials promptly took to the airwaves
refuting the claims saying that the evaluation is premature. On Sunday
White House officials defended Obama's health care proposals,
emphasizing that Congress has not written the final draft of
legislation, and urges skeptics to wait for the final bill. "At the end
of the day, we'll have significant cost controls," said Presidential
adviser David Axelrod. Critics of the reform say the cost and timing are too problematic to
get the votes needed to pass the president's legislation. Republican
National Committee Chairman Michael Steele lashed out today
at President Barack Obama's efforts to reform the national health care
system."The President tells us he doesn't want to spend more than we have ... he
doesn't want to live off borrowed money, but he also told us he didn't
want to run an auto industry," Steele said. "President Obama justifies
this spending by saying the devil made him do it. He doesn't want to
spend trillions we can't afford and then he says he just can't help it." CONTINUE READING...