Costs of Major U.S. Wars

Stephen Daggett
Specialist in Defense Policy and Budgets
June 29, 2010

First high gas prices, now water

A shocking new report about the nation's crumbling drinking water system says that Americans should expect their bills to double or triple to cover repairs just to keep their faucets pouring. That means adding up to $900 a year more for water, nearly equal the amount of the newly extended payroll tax cut.

Fixing and expanding underground drinking water systems will cost over $1 trillion in the next 25 years and users will get socked with the bill, according to the American Water Works Association.

More bad news: U.S. water bills to triple

STATE COSTS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

Pawlenty issues exec order blocking state requests for ObamaCare funds

Democrats in Congress “balanced” ObamaCare mainly by pushing the uninsured into Medicaid, whose costs get borne mainly by the states. It also tramples all over the efforts Minnesota has made in addressing health-care costs in the state by dumping a new load of federal mandates into the mix. This could easily become an issue in the upcoming Minnesota gubernatorial election. Remember, 54% of likely voters in Ramussen’s July poll favored repealing ObamaCare..

...at least one politician decided to take some action rather than just talk about it.

Small Business Trade Group Changes its Stance on ObamaCare

Dan Danner, CEO of the National Federation of Independent Business, recently reversed the NFIB's position on ObamaCare and joined the growing number of states which are challenging the ObamaCare mandated health insurance requirement in court. In a recent Wall Street Journal article, Danner argued that ObamaCare is "death by a thousand cuts for small business owners."

Consider that ObamaCare:

• Increases Overall Cost. The Congressional Budget Office recently revised its cost estimate, increasing original projections by $115 billion. The actual price is now estimated to be more than $1 trillion.



• Offers an Illusory Small Business Tax Credit. Less than one-third of small businesses qualify and ObamaCare guarantees the credit for no more than six years.



• Taxes Small Businesses. ObamaCare levies a new $8 billion tax which will be paid almost exclusively by small businesses and individuals.



• Imposes Costly New Regulations on Small Businesses. ObamaCare includes new IRS reporting requirements expected to result in another $17 billion of increased taxation.

The frustrating reality of ObamaCare is that it hinders entrepreneurs' efforts to grow their businesses and, at the same time, fails to control the rising health care costs that limit growth.

National Center for Policy Analysis

Companies are already warning about higher health-care costs

ObamaCare Day One

One thing becomes clear: The plan does nothing to control health care costs, and everything to increase those costs

This is a balloon which must burst, and it will several years down the road...

For the first time by any administration in memory, the Obama budget forecast rejects the Medicare Trustees’ projections for long-run healthcare cost growth....

Obama Budget Rigs Healthcare Numbers

Do you want the good news first or the bad news?

AMERICAN SPECTATOR BLOG
Repealing Obamacare
By Philip Klein on 1.14.10 @ 12:12PM

The Club for Growth's Chris Chocola writes today that Republicans should make the 2010 and 2012 elections about repealing Obamacare if it passes. Sen. Jim DeMint and Rep. Jeff Flake have already responded by taking a pledge to support a repeal. As somebody who has spent much of my past year reporting on how destructive this legislation would be, I'm absolutely in favor of any efforts to repeal it, just as I favor constitutional challenges. I think that Americans should use any means available to stop this monstrosity. At the same time, however, I think that if the health care bill gets signed into law, it's highly unlikely Republicans will be able to repeal it, or even major portions of it. Most Democrats won't be eager to overturn the greatest domestic achievement of their party since 1965 -- and you'd need to pass the repeal through the House, through the Senate with 60 votes, and then have the President sign it. To even seriously talk about repeal being an actual possibility, Republicans would likely have to gain 40 House seats, 20 Senate seats, and the White House in under three years. Even then, all of those Republicans would have to be onboard with the idea of repeal. So, while I think it's certainly worth aiming for, opponents of Obamacare must also be thinking about ways to reform the system if the repeal effort isn't successful.

At that time, it will be pretty clear that Obamacare was a disaster. Health care costs will still be rising, entitlement spending will be bankrupting our country, there will be doctor shortages, long wait times for care, and the quality of treatment will decline. At some point, there will be another national health care debate. Liberals will argue that Obamacare expanded coverage, but the reason why all the other problems still exist is that Democrats sold out on the public option, and ceded too much control to private insurers. When that happens, opponents cannot be caught flat-footed again -- but instead have to be in a position to respond with well-thought out alternatives. Obamacare puts us on the trajectory toward a single-payer system, but it won't get us there without further Congressional action. We'll have to start laying the groundwork immediately to stop the Democrats' next big push, which will happen years from now. And while repeal is worth fighting for, it shouldn't distract us from debating a "Plan B" should that effort prove unsuccessful. I'll have a lot more to say about it should Obamacare get signed into law.

Prominent newspapers warn about Obamacare costs!

This today:

Wall Street Journal

...and from yesterday:

USA Today

Democrats remain tone-deaf...why???

Given the ever-increasing national debt ($12+ trillion and counting), and with nearly $90 trillion (!) in unfunded Medicare liabilities, why, oh why, are we on the verge of having the federal government assume responsibility for providing healthcare for 40+ million more Americans?

With 15 million additional people fully covered under Medicaid and another 26 million heavily subsidized by the government in the new insurance exchange. All at an incremental annual cost approaching $200 billion by 2019 according to the CBO. (A number, I suspect, which will be much higher by then.)

Have our leaders in Washington completely lost their minds? Is this why “we need heath insurance reform now”? So a federal government which has never in history demonstrated one iota of ability to reign in spending can permanently add another 40+ million people to federal entitlement programs. This is the silver bullet necessary to reduce costs? Really??

It defies logic. It defies evidence. It’s completely preposterous.

Read the whole thing!

Why We Have a Health Care Cost Problem and Why It Will Only Get Worse

Find out here

The 800 pound gorilla in the health care bill

"Don't the American people deserve to know the "true" cost of ObamaCare?"

Throughout the debate on President Obama's relentless push to reform Americas Health Care both the House and the Senate have taken great care to keep the price tag close to the arbitrary $900 Billion cost target proposed by the President.

While both the House and Senate versions claim to have met the Presidents objective, everyone with the exception of Mary Landrieu and Ben Nelson are ignoring the proverbial 800 pound gorilla in the bill.

Read the whole thing

Myth #1 Health Care Costs Are Soaring

No, they are not.

Are Americans finally waking up?

By Ben Stein

Now, Americans are waking up to the truth that ObamaCare basically means that every time you are sick or injured, you will have a clerk from the Department of Motor Vehicles telling your doctor what he can and cannot do.

The American people already know that Mr. Obama's plan to lower health costs while expanding coverage and bureaucracy is a myth, a promise of something that never was and never will be -- a bureaucracy lowering costs in a free society. Either the costs go up or the free society goes away.

Read the whole thing

Obama's Misleading Medicine

By Robert Samuelson

WASHINGTON -- The most misused word in the health care debate is "reform." Everyone wants "reform," but what constitutes "reform" is another matter. If you listen to President Obama, his "reform" will satisfy almost everyone. It will insure the uninsured, control runaway health spending, subdue future budget deficits, preserve choice for patients and improve quality of care. These claims are self-serving exaggerations and political fantasies. They have destroyed what should be a serious national discussion of health care.

The health care conundrum involves a contradiction that the administration steadfastly obscures:

Read more

Government-Run Healthcare: A Prescription For Failure

In this exclusive series, Investor's Business Daily explores the real costs & consequences of the healthcare reforms being discussed in Congress.

The President's main case for [healthcare] reform is rooted in false claims and little evidence

Obama's Health Cost Illusion

...the entire Obama agenda is about increasing political, rather than individual, control of the health markets.

Obama has a disease: the desire for power and control and adulation...at YOUR (OUR) expense!