Ezra Klein: CBO dummies don’t read congressional minds

Yeah, okay, a little bit of hyperbole in my title. Sue me.

On to something Klein posted yesterday. Seems the Congressional Budget Office is predicting that health care “reform” is going to cost. A lot.

Yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office returned a fairly devastating estimate of Sens. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Chris Dodd’s (D-Conn.) Affordable Health Choices Act. According to the agency, the bill would cost a hefty trillion dollars over 10 years and extend insurance to a mere 16 million people. That’s a lot of money to spend if you’re only going to achieve a third of your goal.

Whoa-ho-ho! That’ll nip any thoughts of “reform” right in the ass, won’t it?

Naturally, Klein says the big bad numbers are a result of incomplete instructions given to the CBO and, of course, the CBO making assumptions only on what they were given – not on what they should have assumed the committee meant.

Morons! Stupid partisan morons who hate little sick children!

The committee is now “scrambling” to re-instruct the CBO, according to Klein. I don’t know why they’re bothering, really, when they’re just going to use the OMB numbers instead, anyway.

Via Memeorandum