Posted by Kristie Arlsan - In an interesting turn of events last week, Congress’s own nonpartisan agency specializing in budget analysis, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), may have temporarily derailed health care reform with its recent report indicating that current reform proposals will ultimately increase the deficit by $239 billion dollars over ten years. Not a small sum, giving credence to concerns voiced by the fiscally-minded Blue Dog Democrats over the past few weeks.
With the overall price tag of reform well over $1 trillion dollars, this again leads me to pose the question: why is Congress and the Administration taking an all or nothing approach to health reform?
We are in the midst of an economic crisis. Unemployment continues to rise while our federal deficit continues to grow. We should acknowledge our current financial picture and compromise on a health reform proposal that will truly contain costs and expand coverage, without further increasing the debt our children will one day have to pay.