During ObamaCare debates, past and present, Democrats point to the estimates of the Congressional Budget office which show that enacting Health Care Reform gives the U.S. $143 billion in savings over the first ten years (starting in early 2010), and repealing ObamaCare would 'wipe-out' these very savings.

The crucial thing to understand is that the CBO is just a calculator: It only  adds and subtracts the numbers Congress gives it. For example, a bill -- to be called ObamaCare -- that has $857 billion in expenses over the first ten years; approximately $500 billion in tax increases, in addition to approximately $500 billion in Medicare cuts over the same period, will give you a savings of $143 billion. This is what the CBO tells you. However, the CBO will not be there to make sure that the planned Medicare cuts indeed take place or that the tax increases will be enacted.

Therefore, Democrats are ignorant about the workings of the CBO or are -- more likely -- blatantly misleading the public when they point to the CBO' estimates of costs and 'savings.' These very Democrats voted multiple times -- after ObamaCare passed -- to push back until 2012 the 21% cut in pay for Medicare doctors which, according to ObamaCare, should have taken place in early 2010. The initial goal of letting the 21% cut take place was one of  ObamaCare's money saving moves ($15 billion annually, according to this Reuters report). However, these ‘savings' (approximately $150 billion over ten years if the cuts never takes place), were dumped off the bus as a step one to go around ObamaCare, yet Democrats still wave the $143 billion in ‘saving' that the law will bring over the first ten years starting a year ago.

The 21% cut that was pushed back for a total of two years (thus $30 billion in savings is already gone), is just one of many Medicare cuts that ObamaCare will not be able to follow through, certainly not for extended periods of time, as estimated by the Medicare Actuary; you know, the guy who actually does analyze what cuts can or cannot take place in Medicare, and does not just glaze at the numbers as the CBO does as a Texas Instrument device of thirty years ago. For good reason did Medicare, as of now, land up to cost 9 times -- or whatever exact amount -- more than what the CBO estimated back in the 1960's. Simple, the CBO is a calculator; not an enforcer.

Contact the writer yossi@yossigestetner.com