KeithHennessey.com

Congressional Democratic leaders just released their summary of Bill #2, the health bill they intend to move through the reconciliation process.

In the second health care bill, sixteen States and DC will receive billions of new dollars that they will be able to use for any purpose. This funding is, in effect, fiscal stimulus, and will not expand health insurance enrollment.

I hope you will accept these dozen observations in lieu of a real prediction for health care reform.

While the President is calling for “a final up or down vote,” the House majority is reportedly considering a legislative procedure which avoids just that.

I hope that the pending health legislation is not enacted into law. If it is, fiscally responsible legislators, including those on the new Fiscal Responsibility Commission, should include in their formal recommendations repeal of all the deficit-increasing provisions of these new laws.

No, but not for the reason you might think.

Team Obama says the President’s budget would reduce the deficit. CBO says the President’s budget would increase the deficit. What the heck is going on? Who is right? Let’s use Budget Bubble Graphs to see if we can understand what’s going on.

In each of the following four headline pairs, one is from this morning. The other is from last year. See if you can guess which is which.

Can Speaker Pelosi bring health care reform back from the dead? Did it ever really die?

I respond to a point in Budget Director Orszag and White House Health Policy Advisor DeParle’s Washington Post op-ed. America’s primary fiscal problem is the long-term growth of health entitlement spending. The Senate-passed bill creates a commitment for a new health entitlement program, and takes advantage of a gimmick to claim that this commitment is paid for. Instead, this bill would guarantee a future fiscal crisis.