Fact Check: CBO On Premiums

Fact Check: CBO On Premiums CBO And Democrat Senator Says “It Is True That Some Persons” “Would Find Their Premiums” Going Up

Washington, Feb 25 - PRESIDENT OBAMA: “It's Not Factually Accurate. Here's What The Congressional Budget Office Says. The Costs For Families For The Same Type Of Coverage As They're Currently Receiving Would Go Down 14 To 20%.” PRESIDENT OBAMA: “No, no, no. And this is an example of where we've got to get our facts straight.” SEN. LAMAR ALEXANDER (R-TN) :“That's my point.” PRESIDENT OBAMA: “Well, exactly. So let me respond to what you just Lamar, because it's not factually accurate. Here's what the Congressional Budget Office says. The costs for families for the same type of coverage as they're currently receiving would go down 14 to 20%.” (President Obama, Health Care Summit, 2/25/10)

CBO: “Average Premiums Per Policy In The Nongroup Market In 2016 Would Be Roughly $5,800 For Single Policies And $15,200 For Family Policies Under The Proposal, Compared With Roughly $5,500 For Single Policies And $13,100 For Family Policies Under Current Law. The Weighted Average Of The Differences In Those Amounts Equals The Change Of 10 Percent To 13 Percent In The Average Premium Per Person Summarized Above…” (Emphasis In Original; CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf, Letter To Sen. Bayh, P. 6, 11/30/09)•

SEN. MAX BAUCUS (D-MT): “So It Is True That Some Persons In The So-Called Nongroup Market In The Year 2016, Would Find Their Premiums Would Go Up Without Subsidies. And I Think That Figure Nets Out To About 7%, But They're Getting Better Insurance.” (Sen. Baucus, Floor Remarks, 12/7/09)

GOP Tells Obama To Start Over on Health Care, Harry Reid Fires Back

We now know that President Obama and Majority Leader Reid have no intention of making this bi-partisan with keeping the right to use reconciliation on the table. This is nothing more then an infomercial to set up Republicans, but it is failing. American people can see right through the what the Democrats are doing as we have had plenty of experience in the last year.

GOP Tells Obama To Start Over on Health Care, Harry Reid Fires Back Politics Daily/The Capitolist
Minutes Ago (Feb 25, 2010)
Patricia Murphy

President Barack Obama began the bipartisan health care summit Thursday morning by framing health care costs as a catastrophic drag on the American economy, and by imploring Republicans to abandon their talking points and engage in an open-minded discussion about how to improve health care delivery for all Americans.

"I hope that this isn't just political theater, where we're just playing to the cameras and criticizing each other, but instead are actually trying to solve the problem," Obama said to the Republicans and Democrats assembled in the Garden Room of the Blair House in Washington. "That's what the American people are looking for."
But when the president turned the floor over to the Republicans, Tennessee's Sen. Lamar Alexander put a challenge on the table for Obama and the Democratic leadership in the room.

"The American people have tried to say in every way they know how...they oppose the health care bill that passed the Senate on Christmas Eve," Alexander said. "We believe we have a better idea. Take the ideas you mentioned and start over."
Alexander then asked Democrats to commit that they will not use reconciliation-- a process that requires 51 votes rather than 60-- to pass health care through the Senate.

"Renounce this idea to use reconciliation to pass your version of the bill," Alexander said. "You can say this process has been used before, and it has, but not for something this big. It's not appropriate to use to 17 % of the economy."
With reconciliation on the table, Lamar concluded, "Then the rest of what we do today will not be relevant. The only thing bipartisan will be the opposition to the bill."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid took the floor shortly after Alexander and slammed the Republican's contention that Americans do not want the Senate's bill.
"I would say to my friend Lamar, you're entitled to your own opinion, but not to your own facts." Reid the cited a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll that showed 58 percent of the American people would be "disappointed" if Congress did not pass health care reform this year.

As Reid concluded his remarks, Reid did not take reconciliation off the table.
Nor did the president.

GOP senator (Lamar Alexander) says Obama showing Nixonian tendencies

Anyone who follows the US Senate knows that Sen Lamar Alexander is probably one of the most congenial members of the Senate and always gives others the benefit of the doubt. For Senator Alexander to say that Obama is showing Nixonian tendencies is huge.

This attack on Fox News and now the US Chamber added to the others is downright unnerving and disgusting. Someone needs to remind Obama and his people surrounding him that this is not a dictatorship -- people have a right to disagree with the Obama agenda.

GOP senator (Lamar Alexander) says Obama showing Nixonian tendencies
Assoicated Press
October 21, 2009
Ben Evans

The third-ranking Senate Republican said Wednesday the Obama administration appears to be launching a Richard Nixon-like political strategy of making an "enemies list" of people who disagree with the president.

Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, who once worked in President Nixon's administration, warned the White House that such a "street brawl" approach of attacking political opponents "can get you in a lot of trouble."

Alexander offered no evidence that Obama is developing an actual list, as Nixon famously created for his opponents. But, he said, "I have an uneasy feeling only 10 months into this new administration that we're beginning to see the symptoms of this same kind of animus developing."

"It's a mistake for the president of the United States," he said. "Let's not start calling people out and compiling an enemies list."

White House spokeswoman Gannet Tseggai responded that it's Republicans who "seem to be formulating lists of people and policies to oppose" while the president "is focused on tackling the list of critical priorities that Washington has ignored for too long."

The president "remains committed to working with Republicans to include their best ideas, even if he doesn't get their support," Tseggai said.

Alexander's criticism, which echoed weekend remarks from Karl Rove, the former adviser to President George W. Bush and a Fox News contributor, comes amid an unusual public feud between Fox News and the White House. Alexander also cited widening disputes between the administration and business groups such as the insurance industry, Wall Street banks and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Several top administration officials have sharply criticized Fox News in recent days, saying the cable television channel acts like a wing of the Republican Party and shouldn't be viewed as a legitimate news organization.

Excerpt: Read more at news.yahoo.com