Only in Congress...

Last week Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid revealed the Senate's version of a health care reform bill. The bill is estimated to cost $849 billion and reduce the federal budget deficit by $127 billion over ten years. Anyone else see a problem with this? Somehow there are folks in Congress that think they can save $127 billion by spending $849 billion. For those of you who might not be able to relate to the incomprehensible, not-even-close-to-human logic of Congress, picture this...... you decided last January that you are going to save money in 2009. Black Friday is coming up, and you want to take advantage of some sales. You find some great 50% off sales and end up spending $10,000. You then claim that you have saved $10,000 in 2009 (remember, everything was 50% off, so you would have spent $20,000 without the sales)! Congratulations, you have accomplished your goal for 2009! But wait, your bank account does not have $10,000 more in it. It has $10K less! But I thought you were saving? Oh wait, you subscribe to the Congressional Savings Plan, the one where you claim to save money by spending it.

This is Congressional Math. If you really want to save $127 billion, REDUCE SPENDING BY $127 BILLION! It's really quite simple. There are 3rd graders in this country that can figure that out, but somehow Harry Reid and other members of Congress cannot. Actually, the truth is that they know exactly what they are doing. They aren't trying to save money at all. The real purpose is power. They simply want to gain power over our healthcare system under the guise of fiscal responsibility, and they are arrogant enough to think we, the American people, are stupid enough to buy their pitches. Oh, and the $849 billion total cost estimate is completely bogus. The true cost is about $2.5 trillion. You did read that correctly, by the way.... $2.5 TRILLION! Not $849 billion....... $2,500,000,000,000 (yeah, that's a lot of zeroes!)!! This is accomplished through accounting gimmicks hidden inside the bill combined with conveniently excluding certain spending matters from the bill. For example, the bill pushes $25 billion worth of spending on to the states, therefore, it is not counted in the CBO's estimate. That's like borrowing $250 from a friend but telling him/her that you don't owe the money, because your parents are going to pay it.

The things that some people are trying to pull in Congress are beyond ridiculous. None of what they are doing makes any logical or mathematical sense. This explains Obama and the Democrats' falling poll numbers. The fact is that people aren't stupid, and they are speaking out. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that spending $849 billion does not save money. Even if they were saving money, they're talking about reducing the federal budget deficit by $127 billion over ten years. That might sound significant until you understand what the budget deficit is projected to be over that time period. As it stands now, the CBO estimates that the budget deficit from 2010-2019 will be $7.137 trillion. $127 billion is a measly 1.78% of that. Add that $7+ trillion to the current national debt, and you get $19 trillion. Since Harry Reid and the Democrats plan on "saving" us $127 billion by spending $849 billion (actually $2.5 trillion) our national deficit will be .67% lower than if they hadn't spent the money. What would we do without them? Only in Congress does this math work.