Shouldn't the house Dem's have asked the people who understand the budget if their bills would be beneficial?

Question

In the Senate Budget committee today the head of the CBO (congressional budget office) said the legislation that the house passed for amendements to HR 4 (medicare part D) will have NO effect on cost for prescriptions.. Why would the house pass a bill that will cost tax payers money, and not ask the people who know what will happen if it would be a benefit for the people they are trying to help?

not amendments but the entire HR 4, misspoke....

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Peter Orszag, a former Clinton administration economic adviser, on Thursday became the director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Orszag, who more recently was a senior fellow at the liberal Brookings Institution a think tank in Washington, and the director of The Hamilton Project, a sort of Democratic cabinet-in-waiting housed at Brookings.

yes, he compared it to VA saying the VA has benchmarks or points of interest to go from and HR 4 doesnt. He said the negotiator will go into the meeting and say ok Im here to negotiate prices but if he doesnt have a point to begin there is nothing to go on other than current prices. He also said that if you do add the provisions like the VA it will add more problems to the system that would not be beneficial as well. This is the basics from memory. I cant find the committee meeting logs. it wasnt on the floor.

just said it again. "no direct formulary and no direct steps toward a comprehension." as is in the VA.

"the process of marking the medications on the PO would limit the companies envolved with negotiations creating a microcosm of availabilty with no benchmark to begin negotiations."

Answer 1

The answer is simple...politics. The Dem's 100 hours promise was nothing more than smoke and mirrors. They honestly believe that they can throw all this stuff out there, and that we, the American people, are too stupid to see through what they are doing.

They promised a bill to reduce the cost of prescription drugs. And they delivered on the promise. Never mind that the bill they passed won't do anything that they promised.

Our political system has devolved to the point that perception is all that matters. That is why the Republican controlled congress did nothing. And the Democrats will have the exact same result. It has become theater, and nothing more.

As an example of that, did you catch John Kerry's announcement yesterday? Let's get real here. How many people believe that Kerry decided not to run in 2008 because he feels it is his duty to stay in the Senate and try to correct the Bush Administration's "failed" policy in Iraq? Come on now. He decided not to run because the party told him that, after his "joke" in October, he can't win and that he will only damage the party if he attempts it. And following Kerry, did you catch Kennedy and Reid and their "extemporaneous" speechs in support of this "gallant hero"? Extemporaneous? I don't think so. Both were speaking from prepared texts. Check out the video!

But, in American politics, perception is everything. And they honestly believe that we aren't intelligent enough to see what they are doing.

Answer 2

I swear I did not touch it or even brush up against it or wiggle it up and down or side to side and it just went off all on its own like it had a mind of its own . From this experience of mine I can see the problem you face confronting that which makes no sense to you . All I can say is I enjoyed it while it was going off and have since come to accept that from time to time for no reason at all things happen .Get use to it and you will feel much better sooner then later if you try to understand why . The only answer that makes any sense is money changed hands .It went from the taxpayer to someone else and we may never know why .

Answer 3

After throwing this nation into the most unspeakably obscene national debt, and then having the gall to ask for 10.6 billion more dollars today for a war that has failed, it is quite clear that even a two year old understands a budget better than Republicans.

Answer 4

It's just the name of the bill that counts not what it delivers.

Name a bill The Civil Rights Bill of 2007 which can send people to concentration camps and they would all vote for it.

Answer 5

Neither side listens to the CBO (as if the CBO is right, more often they are wrong). The CBO is a waste of taxpayers money; bureaucracy that is not needed. The right is just does not want their cash cow (pharmaceutical company profits) to be regulated.

Answer 6

Giving the US government the ability to negotiate for lower priced prescription drugs isn't going to lower the price of prescription drugs? Do you realize how stupid that sounds? The government is the pharmaceutical industry's biggest customer - so they would easily be able to force them to lower the price they charge the government. To deny that is simply absurd.

Answer 7

It looks good politically. Hey look we passed a perscription drug bill. We are awesome!!!

The only thing I really expect out of Congress during the next two years is a minimum wage hike, a "non-binding" resolution against further deployment in Iraq, and alot of political manuveurs by both sides of the aisle to increase their chances of winning in 2008.

Answer 8

did he explain WHY it wouldn't reduce the cost?

simple economics suggest it would... there could be other factors at work... but just saying "because" doesn't convince me...

Answer 9

Ask who? The republicans who rubber stamped everything Bush put in front of there noses without even questioning it? Sorry, those days are long gone.

Answer 10

Like the republicans listened to the CBO ever genius? LMAO! They turned busting on them into high art and smeared them for being to liberal time after time.