RUSH: President Obama’s health care law. We have more health care news, and every day we learn more about what an utter disaster this is, what an utter disaster awaits us. This is from the Washington Times, Stephen Dinan. “President Obama’s health care law will push 7 million people out of their job-based insurance coverage — nearly twice the previous estimate, according to the latest estimates from the Congressional Budget Office released [yesterday].” Folks, you know all this. I don’t know whether you remember it or not, but all during the debate and the run-up to Obamacare, I mentioned to you what the ultimate objective of it is.
That’s single-payer, government-run health care.
They know they can’t get there overnight by promoting that or putting that up for a vote, and Obama admitted this (we played the tape) to his buddies at the Service Employees International Union. What he told his union buddies back in 2007 — and we’ve aired this before. We aired it during the campaign. The low-information voters didn’t care. I don’t know that too many people did, either. I don’t think anybody really yet knows (chuckling) what is headed their way when this stuff hits. But the president said to the union buddies of his (paraphrased), “Look, we can’t do this overnight. It’s gonna take five, ten, maybe 15 years to ease everybody into this.”
One of the ways they’re gonna do it is simply make private health insurance, A, too expensive, and then, B, unavailable. So the only option people are going to have will be government-run options. Now, the CBO did say during the debate on health care that a lot of employers would be likely to drop coverage because of rising costs. They did say that. But they low balled the number, and when they put the number out (I forget what it was), I mentioned to you over and over again that they’re undershooting this, because their objective is much higher than what they’re admitting to here.
So now that it’s implemented, now that the Supreme Court has given its stamp of approval, now that it can’t be unraveled, we get information that’s closer to the truth. Now seven million people are gonna lose health insurance on the job simply because it’s going to become so expensive that employers aren’t gonna be able to afford it, and we’ve had a number of small business owners call here and say this very thing. They’re already laying people off. People are already changing, businesses are already changing their structure so that they’ve got fewer than 50 full timers. They’re cutting back hours so that more people are on part time rather than full time.
They’re already making adjustments to avoid the coming high costs. So the CBO now says that “President Obama’s health care law will push 7 million people out of their job-based insurance coverage,” and it’s gonna be much higher than that when it’s all said and done. It’s gonna be everybody when it’s all said and done. For all practical purposes, employer-based health insurance as a benefit ten years from is now not gonna exist, if everything happens the way Obama has it designed. Obama and the Democrats. That is the purpose. So there’s that. Now, those seven million don’t know who they are yet.
So when you hear the news and you hear seven million people are going to lose their health insurance, you think, “Ah, it’s probably not gonna be me. I’ll forget about it. It isn’t any big deal.” Nobody’s gonna be concerned ’til it happens to them and then you’re gonna hear them call here, and they’re gonna start going, “What is this? I just lost my health insurance! My employer just canceled it.” I’ll say, “Yeah, I told you that five years ago.” The CBO has also put out an additional set of numbers. “The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated Tuesday that President ObamaÂ’s signature health care law will cost about $1.3 trillion over the next 10 years.”
Now, when this thing first was proposed, it was under a trillion, if you recall, and they kept it under a trillion. That was the magic number for everybody in the public to think it wasn’t gonna cost any additional money. The Iraq war, that cost a trillion dollars. They said, “Well, we’re gonna end the Iraq war!” So lo and behold, we got a trillion dollars to spend! “Look at that, Mabel. We’re gonna save a trillion bucks! So we’ll transfer that spending to health care and the deficit doesn’t go up. No new spending. It’s magic!”
That never was true. The Congressional Budget Office estimates now that Obamacare will cost $1.3 trillion. By the way, another way they kept this number low, remember, is it’s a ten-year plan, and the taxes start immediately, but the benefits (the spending) don’t kick in for three or four years. So that’s another way they kept the number artificially low. Health care benefits don’t kick in until 2014, but the taxes started immediately. They’re already being collected now. All kinds of games were played. But now?
Now that nothing can be done about it.
So now the truth is slowly trickling out.
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RUSH: Now, on health care law: Actually, the original number was $900 billion, and the Iraq war cost was a trillion. We were actually gonna “save” $100 billion by doing Obamacare. Now they’re saying that the overall ten-year cost is $1.3 trillion, and that is going to escalate even more. Now, here’s a piece in TheHill.com. I’m not gonna read a bunch of excerpts, but I’ll just tell you this. If you read to the middle of this piece, you’ll find all you need to know about this supposedly “nonpartisan” CBO.
Here’s what it says: “The CBO has concluded that health care reform, in spite of its price tag, will ultimately reduce the deficit because of revenue-raisers within the bill.”
Whereas, “A House GOP bill to repeal the law would raise the deficit by $109 billion over about 10 years, the CBO said in 2012.” You see? The cost of Obamacare, $1.3 trillion, will lower the deficit. But doing away with it would raise the deficit. I kid you not. That’s what passes for “nonpartisanship” from the Congressional Budget Office, and it’s what passes for news. So we’re gonna spend $1.3 trillion that we don’t have, and somehow we’re gonna lower the deficit.
If we had repealed it (i.e., not spent the $1.3 trillion), we would have raised the deficit. I kid you not. Don’t doubt me. That is what it says. Now, it was just a couple of months ago that CBO came out and estimated Obamacare to cost $1.1 trillion. Now they’ve found an additional $200 billion in costs that they had overlooked — and I’m telling you, the number is gonna continue it to rise. We’re not through with CBO numbers. “According to projections from [this same report by the] Congressional Budget Office (CBO), entitlements and Obamacare spending will comprise 53% of all federal spending over the coming decade, totaling $24.9 trillion.”
Fifty-three percent!
Is there an end to this?
Is there ever a tipping point on Obama’s spending?
Is there ever a point reached where it just can’t be sustained?
That has to happen. At some point, it has to happen. Even the printing of money or the borrowing of money will not offset this. The numbers don’t lie. The mathematics is what it is. “In its updated Budget and Economic Outlook report released on Tuesday, the CBO projects that Social Security will account for $11.149 trillion in spending from 2014 to 2023 while federal health care entitlements, including Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare, will spend $13.85 trillion.”
Then you add up all the other entitlements, and you get to 53% of federal spending — which, by definition, can’t be touched. It can be, but, by definition an “entitlement” means it can’t be touched. You’d have to write a new law saying you’re doing away with Social Security. Of course politically you couldn’t do that. “In fact, over the next decade, the federal government will collect only $2.6 trillion in dedicated revenues for its…”
Folks, I want you to sit down for this. Well, no, don’t sit down. This is just a stunning number, and this is why this is unsustainable, and this is why at some point we’re gonna collapse. Over the next decade, we are going to spend $31.6 trillion in the entitlements and Obamacare. Over the same ten years, the government will collect only $2.6 trillion dollars in dedicated revenue for that spending. We’re gonna spend $31.6 trillion and collect $2.6 trillion to pay for it.
That, right there, is a $29 trillion deficit just over the next ten years.
And, of course, we’re not through spending.
This administration nowhere near wrapping it up on spending.
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RUSH: We’ll start with Vinny in Bristol, Rhode Island. Hey, Vinny, welcome to the EIB Network. Great to have you here, sir.
CALLER: Hey, thank you very much, Rush. This is like the highlight of my life.
RUSH: You bet.
CALLER: Snerdley’s a peach, I tell you. Look, my point is about income based subsidies when you were talking yesterday about our neighbors subsidizing the people who are, say, 200% below poverty level. Those neighbors, I’m concerned that they will be trying to modify my behavior or our behavior through Obamacare, for any of us that do anything that’s risky that would cause our premiums to be artificially higher. For instance, smoking under Obamacare causes you to pay a higher premium. So my neighbors that would be contributing, whether directly or indirectly in the system, would be complaining, “Why should I subsidize this guy? He’s smoker, you know, he’s overweight.”
RUSH: Look, I don’t think you got anything to worry about, and I’m serious. I don’t think the people you’re talking about are going to think they are subsidizing it. They’re going to think that the rich are paying for it all.
CALLER: Wow.
RUSH: They’re not gonna know. They’re not gonna know what hit ’em. Folks, now, I gotta set the table. What you’re talking about, because you’re bringing up something from yesterday and people might not know what you’re referring to. Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, there was a story about the minimum cost — we’ve done it twice now. The IRS has stated that the lowest available health care plan, the bronze health care plan in Obamacare, will cost about $4,000 a person, so that’s $16,000 for a family of four. That’s the cheapest. That’s the IRS that put this out. That’s the cheapest cost for the cheapest health care plan, once Obamacare is fully implemented.
Now, there are subsidies for people. I mean, if you’re making 40 grand, you don’t have that kind of money. So if you earn less than 200% of the poverty level, then you qualify for a subsidy in that case, in which case I said, your neighbors are going to be paying, in part, for your health care. So right now, 200% of the poverty rate is about 78, $75,000 a year. Let’s go with 75. So if you make less than $75,000 a year, you will qualify for subsidies for Obamacare health insurance premiums. I don’t know how much. I don’t know how much of the $4,000 per person will be subsidized, but some of it will, and I just made it statement that your neighbors are gonna be paying for it. And what I mean by that is, all of us, the taxpayers.
Where does money come from in this country? If something is subsidized, Obama doesn’t have a stash, until he takes it from somebody or prints it or borrows it. The government does not produce wealth. All the government does actually is destroy it or rearrange it, but they don’t produce anything. So a family making less than 75 grand will be subsidized. Somebody else will help them pay the $16,000 a year. Well, the somebody else is their neighbors. And so Vinny here is thinking of neighbor as the guy living across the street. And the guy across the street will find out he’s paying for you, and if you smoke he’s gonna be ticked off at you, so he’s gonna come along and make you change the way you live. My point to Vinny is, the guy across the street is not gonna put two and two together and get four. He’s not gonna think that he’s paying for it. He’s gonna be told that the rich are paying for this, people like Phil Mickelson.
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RUSH: No, folks, to answer your question, I don’t know how large these subsidies are gonna be. I don’t know how much of that $20,000 the rest of us are gonna be paying. Nobody can find out. I’ve been looking for months trying to get my arms around the subsidies for people who are not gonna pay all of their premiums, and I can’t find it. I don’t know what it’s gonna be. That is yet to be disclosed.
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RUSH: Here is Jeff in Bloomington, Illinois. It’s great to have you on the program. Hello.
CALLER: Great. It’s an honor to talk to you, Rush.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: Concerning Obamacare, who’s gonna pay for the people who are on unemployment or don’t have jobs/ have fallen out of the job market altogether, disability, and the illegals? Who are gonna pay for those people to have health insurance?
RUSH: You and I.
CALLER: Ugh.
RUSH: Look, the simple answer, Jeff, is that you and I are paying for everything. There’s no third-party paying for this stuff. Obama’s not paying for it. The government doesn’t have its own money that doesn’t first come from us or is not first borrowed or printed. So the people who earn income are going to be paying for it. The people who pay taxes are going to be paying for all those others that you mentioned.
CALLER: So the penalties…? You know, if we don’t get it, we have to pay a penalty. They won’t have to pay that either, you think?
RUSH: Well, let me put it this way. I don’t know for a fact. But my assumption is that, given Obama’s proclivities, I don’t think he intends to put in jail or fine his number one constituents, and that is the poor and the out of work.
CALLER: That’s true.
RUSH: I think if anybody is gonna be penalized under Obama, it’s those of us who work. Now, I don’t know the machinations here. If somebody is unemployed or on food stamps or whatever and here comes the IRS saying, “Okay, you owe a fine,” and they say, “Wait a minute! I don’t have a job,” I don’t know how that’s gonna work. I’m sure for the poor, the penalties are waived, but I don’t know at what level of poverty they’re waived. I don’t know what “poor” means in terms of waiving the fines.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: But you can be darn sure that Obama’s constituents are not gonna be hit up. They’re gonna be the beneficiaries. You know that as well as I do. That’s the whole objective of this.
CALLER: Right. That’s why they voted for him, and as conservatives in the middle of Illinois (chuckling), as few of us as there are, we really didn’t have a say in it. So…
RUSH: It really can be nothing else. What are the unemployed paying today? I mean, when Obama comes forth and explains his latest policy, who’s he aiming at? Who is it “not paying their fair share”? Who is it that’s denying everybody else a fair shake? Who is it that’s got to come up with a little more? Who is it that has more than they need? People who are working. I mean, how could it be otherwise? Do you think Obama’s gonna go out there and fine the poor? He’s gonna fine people that don’t have jobs? Not unless they do videos. If they don’t do that, they’re in the clear.
It’s the working people, to whatever degree, who are gonna pay.