More Lies: WH Emails Reveal Major Obamacare Accounting Fraud

PapaG · Sep 15, 2011

Uh oh ... looks like even more hearings. Getting Foster and Marton under oath should be interesting. Who is leaking these emails, btw? Are the Dems deliberately trying to destroy Obama's presidency?

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guyben...mails_reveal_major_obamacare_accounting_fraud

Does the American public have the bandwidth to follow two Solyndra-style White House scandals at once? As maddening as the Solyndra row has been -- and we'll have an update on that story later this morning -- this revelation is probably worse. I reach that conclusion based on the relative scale and consequences of the dueling disgraces' politically-motivated dishonesty. First, a little bit of background to prime the pump: When Democrats entered their full-court press for Obamacare last winter, they made it clear that nothing would stand in their way. Not hostile public opinion, not sound policy interests, not even a desire to know what was in their own bill. Nothing. One of their boldest plays was to manufacture a CBO score explictly designed to reach the ludicrous conclusion that theor new multi-trillion-dollar entitlement program would actually reduce the deficit. In order to accomplish this feat, they used smoke and mirrors accounting gimmicks that went far beyond even many Beltway cynics' wildest imaginations.

Rep. Paul Ryan exposed and debunked Democrats' most audacious tricks during the healthcare summit -- which of course did absolutely nothing to convince Democrats of the error of their ways. During his illuminating dissection of the bill, Ryan mentioned a provision called the CLASS Act, a new federally funded long-term care program embedded within Obamacare. Ryan quoted Sen. Max Baucus, a Democrat, as decrying the program as a Madoff-style "Ponzi scheme." Why? Because the premiums supposedly collected to pay for the CLASS Act over Obamacare's first decade would be injected into that phony, contrived "deficit reducing" CBO formula -- while the program itself would likely collapse under its own weight almost immediately. In other words, some critics suspected, Democrats were creating an entire program just to extract hypothetical dollars from its front-loaded revenue mechanism to "pay for" the larger bill -- with no real intention of implementing a sustainable long-term care program. To outside observers like Ryan, it looked like a giant shell game. As we now know, it looked that way to inside observers, too. The AP has the hugely important exclusive:

Even as leading Democrats offered assurances to the contrary, government experts repeatedly warned that a new long-term care insurance plan could go belly up, saddling taxpayers with another underfunded benefit program, according to emails disclosed by congressional investigators. Part of President Barack Obama's health care law, the program is in limbo as a congressional debt panel searches for budget savings and behind the scenes, administration officials scramble to find a viable financing formula.
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So the White House was telling the public everything was copacetic while internal government experts were frantically warning that the administration's ideological plans were profoundly unwise. If this scenario feels strangely familiar, it should. Here's the AP's background on the CLASS Act as well as an explanation of its fatal flaws:

CLASS was intended as voluntary long-term care insurance plan, supported by premiums, not taxpayer dollars. Workers would pay an affordable sum of around $100 a month or less. In exchange, they would receive a modest daily cash benefit averaging no less than $50 if they become disabled later in life. Beneficiaries could use the money for services to help them stay at home, or to help with nursing home bills. The Health and Human Services Department is supposed to set the final premiums and benefit levels in the coming months.
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Emails show that the first warning about CLASS came in May 2009, from Richard Foster, head of long range economic forecasts for Medicare. "At first glance this proposal doesn't look workable," Foster wrote in an email to other HHS officials, some of whom were working with Congress to get CLASS into the health care law. Foster said a rough outline of the program would have to enroll more than 230 million people — more than the U.S. workforce — to be financially feasible. But work on CLASS continued, bolstered by a report for AARP that laid out scenarios for implementing the plan. The AARP study also raised financial concerns, although the seniors' lobby supports CLASS. (My note: More incomprehensible treachery from AARP).
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In July, Foster tried again.

After reviewing the latest information from Kennedy's office, he wrote HHS officials: "Thirty-six years of (professional) experience lead me to believe that this program would collapse in short order and require significant federal subsidies to continue." Too late. The Obama administration had decided to support CLASS. Documents and emails indicate that Foster was edged out of deliberations.
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Foster was sent to the corner to sulk. His math was too politically inconvenient, so he was banished to intellectual Siberia. (Say, I thought it was only those anti-science, anti-critical thinking Republicans who did this sort of thing). Foster wasn't the only insider who was extremely critical of the scheme:

By that time, Marton, the HHS aging policy official, was also raising questions internally. Emails he sent other administration officials relayed studies that raised concerns about such issues as premiums and the role of employers, while also recommending fixes. Publicly, the administration maintained it would all work out. A December 2009 presentation for senior officials stressed the end result would be a financially robust program. In private, administration insiders were still spelling out concerns
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PapaG · Sep 15, 2011

I'll add that the original sourcing for this is the AP, which is striking in its own way.

BrianFromWA · Sep 15, 2011

who are today's Woodward and Bernstein?

Denny Crane · Sep 15, 2011

BrianFromWA said: ↑

who are today's Woodward and Bernstein?
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Barfo and Maris, of course.

But seriously, this all points to a serious lack of oversight and responsibility by congress.

BLAZER PROPHET · Sep 15, 2011

I enjoyed the misspelled words in the blog. Really classy.

The_Lillard_King · Sep 15, 2011

Apparently wallstreet must not care about this or the market would be down.

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