Baucus plan: out for your money from out of your blood

Behind every headline, there's truth being spun like a top. Can you make any of it out? Or does it only resemble a blur of pretty colors and fuzzy shapes? Ohhhh...pretty....

Here's the story header that needs a bit of clarification before the O' led liberals start the yammering. That's considering, of course, they ever actually stop.

CBO: Baucus bill costs $829 billion, reduces deficit by $81 billion

By Jeffrey Young - 10/07/09

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issued a cost estimate of the healthcare reform bill under consideration by the Senate Finance Committee, concluding it would increase federal spending by $829 billion over 10 years but be offset by enough spending cuts and tax increases to reduce the budget deficit by $81 billion.

And all the conservatives in the house went, "Do WHAT? Not bloody likely."

Bill Morrissey at HotAir makes two important points, beyond the fact this is not a definitive estimate, yet.

1) The Baucus bill requires sucking $210 billion dollars worth of life from the veins of Richie Rich. An excise tax is the needle of choice, inserted into "Cadillac plans". What happens when you over tap a vein? It collapses.
The excise tax will cause insurers to either a) drop the "Cadillac plans" entirely to avoid the excise tax or b) hike the premiums to cover the extra cost making the plans unsellable.

Wait. It gets more flawed. Or should I say better.

2) The taxes start years before the coverage. Think of it like a reversal of the popular lay-away plan: Pay now! Enjoy much, much later.

"...Baucus has also included a little sleight-of-hand in this scenario. While the program itself would not start until 2013, the taxes start in 2010. That means the CBO compared seven years of expenses to ten years of revenue..."

That seems...I don't know...stupid?

Think of it like this. You want to buy a house, a house you'll be paying on for 30 years. So to estimate if you can afford it, you add up how much it would cost you to live in it this year. Then you compare that to your annual salary. Yes! You can afford it!
Except...it's April.

What happens next year when you've got four more months of mortgage payments and no more months of paychecks? The following year, oddly enough, that more-payments-less-paychecks scenario repeats itself. In fact, darn it, it repeats itself for 29 years. Can you still afford it?

If I were you, I'd start off by renting. Or just live with your parents.