07.25.12

Sessions: Repealing Costly Health Law ‘Essential Step To Restore Fiscal Sustainability’

“Once the accounting tricks are removed—such as the delayed implementation of the major spending provisions—we know the law will cost more than two and half trillion dollars over its first full 10-year window.” 

WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today about the Congressional Budget Office’s new cost estimates for the President’s health care law: 

“CBO has now told us that total spending on only the coverage provisions of the President’s health law is $1.7 trillion—a far cry from his promised price tag of $900 billion. But once the accounting tricks are removed—such as the delayed implementation of the major spending provisions—we know the law will cost more than two and half trillion dollars over its first full 10-year window beginning in 2014. Over the long term, it will add $17 trillion to our nation’s unfunded liabilities—more than double that of Social Security. Repealing this 2,700-page monstrosity is an essential step in order to restore fiscal sustainability to our nation.

The score continues to cite the lower cost of the first two years when the law is not implemented. More importantly, it double counts over $400 billion in new revenue—one of the biggest accounting gimmicks of all time. Further, the CBO analysis does not take into account implementation costs or the cost of the ‘Doc Fix,’ which alone amounts to another $300 billion. I am amazed that the CBO score omits these facts.

For CBO to contend that this law will create a surplus is a colossal misstatement of reality. This kind of cost analysis helps explain why the nation is going broke.”