Democrat-Appointed Head of Congressional Budget Office Says What John McCain and Virtually Every Health Economist Has Been Saying For A Year

In an ominous sign for proponents, Congressional Budget Office Director Doug Elmendorf told the Senate Budget Committee that none of the bills he has seen would contain health care costs to reduce them significantly over time. This is the main argument offered by Obama and Democrats as to why Congress can spend $1 trillion and save money.

“In the legislation that has been reported we do not see the sort of fundamental changes that would be necessary to reduce the trajectory of federal health spending by a significant amount,” Elmendorf said.

“And on the contrary, the legislation significantly expands the federal responsibility for health care costs.”

Elmendorf said health analysts say the way to do it by changing the preferential tax treatment for health insurance.

“We have a subsidy for larger health insurance policies in our tax code, and that like other subsidies encourages more of that activity,” Elmendorf said. “Reducing that subsidy would reduce that.”

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