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Expert Commentary: The Unfolding Fiscal Disaster Behind ACA Enrollment Figures
The Mercatus Center at George Mason University ^ | April 17, 2014 | Charles Blahous

Posted on 04/19/2014 10:38:47 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Earlier this month there was tremendous press attention to new data indicating that enrollment in the Affordable Care Act (ACA)’s health insurance exchanges had surpassed 7 million. The White House took a victory lap while much of the press, desperate to write something positive after months of reporting on website glitches and insurance plan cancellations, characterized the milestone as good political news for ACA supporters. Our national discussion, however, is missing the truly significant story here; what is unfolding before our eyes is a colossal fiscal disaster, poised to haunt legislators and taxpayers for decades to come.

It is quite possible that the ACA is shaping up as the greatest act of fiscal irresponsibility ever committed by federal legislators. Nothing immediately comes to mind as comparable to it. Certainly no tax legislation is, because tax rates rise and fall frequently, such that one Congress’s tax cut can be (and often is) undone by a later tax increase. The same is true for legislation affecting appropriated spending programs. But the ACA is a commitment to permanently subsidize comprehensive health insurance for millions who could not otherwise afford it, which the federal government has no viable plan to finance. Moreover, experience shows that it is very difficult to scale back such spending once large numbers of Americans have been made dependent on it.

Let’s walk through the salient features of this unfolding fiscal disaster:

An Expansion of Spending Commitments Comparable to Enacting Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid: Our biggest fiscal problems today stem from Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security costs rising well beyond original projections. The ACA was enacted even though these longstanding financing challenges have still not been met, and represents an additional expansion of federal commitments comparable to these other programs’ creations.....

(Excerpt) Read more at mercatus.org ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: aca; obama; obamacare; taxes
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1 posted on 04/19/2014 10:38:47 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: basil

Self ping to read later…..


2 posted on 04/19/2014 10:52:04 PM PDT by basil (2ASisters.org)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

i.e, it, along with most everything out of the “dear leader”, is a gigantic clusterf**k.


3 posted on 04/19/2014 10:52:47 PM PDT by AlexW
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Obama will be long out of office by the time the bills come due.

What is the problem?


4 posted on 04/19/2014 10:53:42 PM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

What did Barry say it’s up to now? Nineteen Million?! ROTFL!!! What a clown.


5 posted on 04/19/2014 10:59:58 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Obama's smidgens are coming home to roost.)
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To: FlingWingFlyer
Maybe he's counting the Mexicans, Chinese, Guatemalans and other illegals?
6 posted on 04/19/2014 11:01:17 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (I will raise $2M for Cruz and/or Palin's next run, what will you do?)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

FUBAR


7 posted on 04/19/2014 11:09:21 PM PDT by VRWC For Truth (Roberts has perverted the Constitution)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
When the government collapses in bankruptcy, the debts owed by that government will be uncollectable. This includes all the pensions the public workers unions have extorted.

When even a liberal college predicts catastrophe, it's time to start stocking up long term food supplies...

8 posted on 04/19/2014 11:18:18 PM PDT by jonascord (Laeti vescimur nos subacturis)
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To: goldstategop

“Obama will be long out of office by the time the bills come due.”

At the rate this turd is sinking, my bet is that by the time FUBO leaves office (and that presupposes that the RINOs don’t impeach him beforehand), he will be running fast out of Dodge to avoid the tar and feathers. Obamacare simply won’t work, and the more they try to cover it’s shortcomings with executive edicts, the faster it will go under. If the “insured” can’t get a doctor to see them, as is being reported around the country, people will figure it out. And it isn’t just the “newly insured,” the rest of us will get poorer quality care too.


9 posted on 04/19/2014 11:24:08 PM PDT by vette6387
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I’ve actually been wondering about this. We have not heard an estimate of the fiscal cost of the various waivers and suspensions that the President has adopted.


10 posted on 04/19/2014 11:40:26 PM PDT by p. henry
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Comment #11 Removed by Moderator

Comment #12 Removed by Moderator

To: F15Eagle
I was gonna say ... and THIS is coming out of George Mason.

It’s bad ... real bad when the liberals admit it.

The Mercatus Center is not Liberal.

The Mercatus Center at George Mason University is the world’s premier university source for market-oriented ideas—bridging the gap between academic ideas and real-world problems.

Our mission is to generate knowledge and understanding of the institutions that affect the freedom to prosper, and to find sustainable solutions that overcome the barriers preventing individuals from living free, prosperous, and peaceful lives.

13 posted on 04/20/2014 2:24:46 AM PDT by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

excellent article but he’s only stating what is apparent when one decides to skip the revenue part of the bill. The unknown costs need to be pounded on from here until election day.


14 posted on 04/20/2014 2:39:02 AM PDT by wiggen (The teacher card. When the racism card just won't work.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“...what is unfolding before our eyes is a colossal fiscal disaster, poised to haunt legislators and taxpayers for decades to come.”

Just as the 0bamunists have planned, IMO. They see the pending (designed) collapse as the impetus they need to get to single-payer, which has been their goal all along.

And, the pubbies don’t have the stones to stop it.


15 posted on 04/20/2014 3:23:51 AM PDT by PubliusMM (RKBA; a matter of fact, not opinion. 01-20-2016; I pray we make it that long.)
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To: goldstategop

Obama will be long out of office by the time the bills come due.

What is the problem?
If they knew that they would still be responsible for thier actions they would all be in leg irons or have rope burns around thier necks


16 posted on 04/20/2014 4:14:30 AM PDT by ronnie raygun
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The jug-eared jackass claims that the ACA is working when it is barely out of the gate. There will be hell to pay long before it reaches the finish line. The perps deserve whatever repercussions come their way.


17 posted on 04/20/2014 4:27:22 AM PDT by windsorknot
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Ancient joke: “Sure we lose a fortune on every sale, but we make it up in volume.”

Obama’s ACA braggadocio = laughing in our faces, again. He knows it is a fiscal disaster and that entitlements never die; that was the point.


18 posted on 04/20/2014 5:40:21 AM PDT by Chewbarkah
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

It’s too late. By the end of next week, the administration will be crowing about new numbers indicating over 75 million owe their insurance to the ACA.


19 posted on 04/20/2014 5:46:02 AM PDT by Sgt_Schultze (A half-truth is a complete lie)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
... experience shows that it is very difficult to scale back such spending once large numbers of Americans have been made dependent on it.

That is what the central planners were counting on. And after they counted the actual numbers and saw that the were woefully short of their meager goal of 7 million, they fudged the numbers. Blatant and brazen in their declaration, theses petulant, childish psychopaths will not admit that their Titan of Socialism is more like the Titanic.

All is well; the deck chairs are re-arranged; the band is still playing. Have another drink or bong hit. Your doctor, health plan and insurance premiums are the same. And those blasted republicans want to ruin it all.

20 posted on 04/20/2014 7:11:53 AM PDT by VRW Conspirator ( 2+2 = V)
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