Rehberg Plays Fast and Loose with the Truth about His Plan to End Medicare Coverage for Thousands of Seniors
Millionaire Congressman’s Political Doublespeak Catches Up to Him
Helena, Mont. – Millionaire Congressman Dennis Rehberg tried to distract from revelations this week that his new plan to defund the Affordable Care Act would defund Medicare for thousands of Montana seniors by pointing to a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Report. That’s right, Rehberg is now touting the very same non-partisan, independent Congressional Budget Office that found repealing the health care law would add $230 billion to the deficit over the next decade alone.
The problem is Rehberg forgot to check his facts about what CBO actually found. According to Congress’ official scorekeeper, Rehberg’s plan would increase the deficit by almost $6 billion.
Page one of the CBO report:
“The Congressional Budget Office and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) estimate that section 4017 would reduce the deficit by about $1.4 billion in fiscal year 2011 but would increase deficits by a net amount of $5.7 billion over the 2011-2021 period.”
“It seems Congressman Rehberg wants to save a buck today by robbing from seniors’ Medicare and saddling our children with almost $6 billion more debt tomorrow,” said Ted Dick, Executive Director of the Montana Democratic Party. “Congressman Rehberg might have no problem playing fast and loose with the truth, but the math doesn’t lie. The truth is Rehberg’s radical plan to defund the Affordable Care Act will actually defund Medicare for more than 160,000 Montana seniors and add billions to our mounting federal debt.”
What are the programs Rehberg wants to delay by denying funding? Cost-saving measures to improve care for patients and provide quality prescription medicines at a lower price, while saving taxpayer dollars in the process.
Page four of the CBO report:
“Delaying the Implementation of New Programs.
PPACA and the Reconciliation Act established several initiatives—such as quality initiatives, steps to reduce hospital readmissions, and changes in the delivery system for health care that will be tested and implemented by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation—that involve significant research and development activities before the savings from those initiatives can be realized. Delaying or reducing work on those research and development activities for the rest of fiscal year 2011 would delay the realization of expected savings. In addition, regulatory development for some initiatives—such as establishing a new regulatory pathway for approval of biological products that are highly similar to or interchangeable with their brand-name counterparts—would probably be delayed. In aggregate, delaying the implementation of new programs, and thus delaying the savings that would result from them, would increase spending.”
Read more about the truth about what CBO found in The Hill’s Healthwatch: CBO: Defunding health reform boosts deficit.
