CHART OF THE DAY: If Congress Does Nothing, The Deficit Will Disappear

[dkf]

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/06/chart-of-the-day-if-congress-does-nothing-the-deficit-will-disappear.php?ref=tn

On Wednesday, the Congressional Budget Office released its updated long-term budget forecast, which looked surprisingly like the previous version of its long-term budget forecast.

It showed, as one might expect, that if the Bush tax-cuts remain in effect and Medicare and Medicaid spending isn't constrained in some way, the country will topple into a genuine fiscal crisis -- not the fake one the Congress is pretending the country's in right now.

Republicans, of course, seized on that particular projection, and claimed (a bit ridiculously) that it proved the government must adopt their precise policy views: major spending cuts, particularly to entitlement programs.

While all this -- from the findings to the politicization of them -- is perfectly expected, the forecast also presents another opportunity to remind people that the medium-term budget outlook is perfectly fine if Congress adheres to the law as it's currently written. That means no repealing the health care law, for one, but more significantly it means allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire, and (unfathomably) allowing Medicare reimbursement rates for doctors to fall to the levels prescribed by the formula Congress wrote almost 15 years ago. In other words, no more "doc fixes."

[liberal N proud]

1. That might be why the GOP is in such a hurry to kill medicare

[dkf]

2. Congress has let it get out of hand.

Maybe if they didn't insist on these extra payments, prices would come down.

[Major Hogwash]

19. Exactly. They want to privatize it the way they privatized the Army Corps of Engineers, and

private armies like Black Water.

Privately owned so the corporatits rake in the big money while the peons do all the labor.
We're reinventing the pyramid schemes of WWI.
That made millionaires out of arms dealers!!

[John Paul Jones]

3. If they had done no thing, we wouldn't be in the fix we are in now.

I rather like the first five words in the Bill of Rights.

[elleng]

4. I like that 'if Congress does nothing!' If only!

[woo me with science]

5. ROFL!

:thumbsup:

[MannyGoldstein]

6. So the current exercises in further savaging the 95% are unnecessary?

Incredible.

[OneGrassRoot]

7. K&R n/t

[gratuitous]

8. Which is why Congress will take affirmative action

Every year, like clockwork, Congress will re-certify the Hyde Amendment to keep women in their place, and re-authorize the ruinous Bush tax cuts. The alternatives (women controlling their own bodies, tax revenues that cover expenditures) are too horrible. Government must remain dysfunctional, or the Republicans lose their reason to exist. And without a Republican counterbalance, too many Democrats would succumb to the lure of a government and a society that works for more of its members, instead of acting as a pipeline for wealth created by labor to be pumped into the pockets of the elite. And we can't have that!

[Lone_Star_Dem]

9. Sure, but the wealthy will have to pay their taxes again before this could take place.

If they had to pay their taxes they'd be angry at the politicians who permitted such a thing to occur and their money/gifts would no longer be channeled in said politicians directions. Congress is not about to let that happen.

[dkf]

13. We will all have to pay more taxes.

This gets rid of the extra child tax credit and raises the bottom bracket from 10% to 15% in addition to raising taxes on the rich

[Aerows]

16. No offense, but so?

I don't have kids, so I don't know why people that choose to have a tremendous brood of children who will use up more resources should get a tax BREAK. Mind you, I feel for those that have children, but this world has a population problem as it stands. Responsible couples plan for a family.

[dkf]

21. I agree.

[RKP5637]

25. I agree too! n/t

[Lone_Star_Dem]

27. I realize that.

I don't mind if I pay 5% more in taxes and I never got the extra child tax credit anyway. I like the services my taxes buy me and think for what I pay, it's a steal of a deal.

[KoKo]

10. K&R!

[Yo_Mama]

11. Yeah, but Medicare as we know it would vanish

The cuts in the SGR have never been fully made because they would mean a lot of poorer elderly people would be denied access to physicians.

A "fake" insurance plan is not any good either.

[dkf]

14. Well the deficit is largely due to increased health care costs.

If you can't control medical costs in Medicare and Medicaid then it doesn't work anyway. Basically the reason we are looking at cutting costs IS because of medical costs going up so much.

[MannyGoldstein]

17. Most specialties have no choice but to take Medicare patients

Can you imaging cardiologists turning down patients over 65? They'd all be fighting to grab 5% of the patients that need a cardiologist. They'll just have to learn to live on $250k a year - cut coupons and keep their Ford Focus for 10 years like the rest of us.

GPs/FPs, OB-GYNs will be able to turn down Medicare. But they get paid relatively poorly anyway (by doc standards). Perhaps we should give them a raise.

Somehow, we need to attack the root of exploding healthcare costs, and doctor salaries can't be ignored. They are paid far more than their peers in any other country.

[Yo_Mama]

22. I was thinking about the general practicioners.

You have to get to the first doctor to get to the cardiologist, endocrinologist, oncologist, etc, or outcomes will be much worse and far more expensive in emergency rooms.

I don't know Medicare rates for specialists - I know recently some payments to specialists were cut and payments to the primary care physicians were raised a bit.

Medicare already pays very little compared to private insurances for services such as endoscopy, etc. I don't know about cardiac and cancer rates.

Under current law (the reform bill) there are additional significant cuts in Medicare coming in the next decade. There probably is no way that the elderly won't lose a lot of access; trying to put the doc fix into effect would be lethal.

[MannyGoldstein]

23. Yes, as I wrote, GPs should be raised

Actually, we need a lot more GPs - we should pay them more than most specialists, they are more important.

[Angry Dragon]

12. K&R

[BeHereNow]

15. Thanks Manny for bringing this post to our attention-

I agree, it needs to be on the front page.
K&R!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BHN

[MannyGoldstein]

18. No problem. When I saw it my head exploded.

I should have known to check the numbers. This is all about enriching the wealthiest even more, and harming the rest of us as a side effect.

[BeHereNow]

20. My head has not stopped exploding since 2001 (SCOTUS/Bush)

Fact is, never has so much wealth (power) been consolidated into
so few hands in our history. And they are never satiated.
They just keep taking.

We are on our own, left to survive on what ever crumbs we can
find.

That is the bottom line.

BHN

[RandomThoughts]

24. Your arguement uses a malformed axiom.

It is the crumbs from the table argument.

That comment was an admonishment and a correction, not a statement of fact but an illumination of a lack of complete thought on the topic. Said with humility, many use that as a justification of how they think things should be, not as pointing out an error in many thoughts.

If you believe some only get 'crumbs from the table' you are in the same error.

And if you do not believe teachers should learn, you don't understand interaction, you may be in a place where you can no longer learn anything, and if you are in that state, and not perfect, you are in a bad place.

[Distant Observer]

26. The worst thing Obama did was EXTENDING BUSH TAX CUTS in order

to show he could work with the Republicans.

Now they have a boot on his neck and they won't compromise.