Update: CBO scores Blue Dog Medicare cap – bill STILL ADDS BILLIONS TO DEFICIT..Floor vote next week -Blue Dogs rolled over already?..Health Care NOT waiting for August recess….

Well alrighty then! The sneaky attempts to give TOTUS (and his panel) control over Medicare spending (taking it away from Congress and thus from people who can be swayed by the public) and GUT benefits to Seniors STILL will not stop this bill from adding BILLIONS to the deficit according to CBO (the head of which was apparently NOT rolled by TOTUS’ oneness last week). Give that man a medal!

So they wanna Throw (Grand)Momma from the Train and it STILL will not avoid adding BILLIONS to the deficit, (that deficit, and the reality of the public’s reaction to it, of which the WH is rightfully fearful, is, in the projections they are holding back, likely MUCH MUCH higher than what they told us pre-spendulus)..KILL THIS BILL….

Kausfiles on Orszag’s BS spin on CBO and the REALITY of what is driving the costs:

…In fact, what the CBO said is that, without draconian additions that would impose automatic “fallback” cuts (“such as an across-the-board reduction in payments”) if the IMAC panel’s economies didn’t materialize, the chances of generating those savings were slim:

Although it is possible that savings would grow significantly after 2019, CBO concludes that the probability of this outcome is low for the proposal as drafted … [E.A.]..

1. A front page WaPo article on heart attack treatments reaches a conclusion that reinforces what many Orszag skeptics have suspected:

Although inappropriate care, high administrative costs, inflated prices and fraud all add to the country’s gigantic medical bill, the biggest driver of the upward curve of health spending has been the discovery of new and better things to do when someone gets sick. …

Ed at HotAir has it up!

…The sweetest part of this? Obama tried to strong-arm the CBO the last time they sent up a red flag about what an awful boondoggle his pet program will turn out to be. Here’s what he gets for trying things “the Chicago way.”…

From AceHQ:

…You know when some huckster is offering vague, odd, and impenetrable contract provisions to you? Yeah. Those hard-to-decipher provisions are not intended to benefit you.

But the CBO is not fooled.

CBO deals new blow to health planFor the second time this month, congressional budget analysts have dealt a blow to the Democrat’s health reform efforts, this time by saying a plan touted by the White House as crucial to paying for the bill would actually save almost no money over 10 years.

A key House chairman and moderate House Democrats on Tuesday agreed to a White House-backed proposal that would give an outside panel the power to make cuts to government-financed health care programs. White House budget director Peter Orszag declared the plan “probably the most important piece that can be added” to the House’s health care reform legislation.

But on Saturday, the Congressional Budget Office said the proposal to give an independent panel the power to keep Medicare spending in check would only save about $2 billion over 10 years- a drop in the bucket compared to the bill’s $1 trillion price tag.

“In CBO’s judgment, the probability is high that no savings would be realized … but there is also a chance that substantial savings might be realized. Looking beyond the 10-year budget window, CBO expects that this proposal would generate larger but still modest savings on the same probabilistic basis,” CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf wrote in a letter to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer on Saturday.

The proposal’s meager savings are a blow to Democrats working furiously to bring down costs in order to win support from their party’s fiscally conservative Blue Dogs, who have threatened to vote against the bill without significant changes.

Here we go again, now The Hill has the Blue Dogs BACK in Cmte session to work over the weekend, b/c their egos cant take the CMTE being bypassed? These guys will get ROLLED in November if they vote for this POS….quotes after the break:From the Hill report:

Hours after calling their chairman a liar, Blue Dogs on the Energy and Commerce Committee stood by that chairman’s side and announced together that the once-collapsed healthcare negotiations are back on track.

“The chairman and I would like to retract some of the things that we said earlier today,” Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.), the chairman of the Blue Dog healthcare task force said while standing beside Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) after the two emerged from an emergency meeting of the Democrats on the committee.

Waxman said staff would work through the weekend in the hopes of having the committee resume its markup on Monday.

As Waxman and Ross were publicly making up, House leaders gathered to announce that the committee would keep working.

“We are looking forward to the Energy and Commerce Committee working its will and reporting a bill,” said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).

Even with Waxman’s hope for a Monday resurrection of the markup, Hoyer acknowledged that the House is unlikely to meet its deadline of passing a bill by Friday. He said the House session may extend to  Saturday or even the first two days of the next week.

MESSAGE TO THE PEOPLE FROM THIS? KEEP CALLING AND FAXING….THESE BLUE DOGS SEEM TO HAVE WEAK SPINES…

Scroll down for Update 2…here is the money quote:

Arkansas Rep. Mike Ross, the top negotiator for conservative Democrats in the Blue Dog Coalition, told reporters Friday that the negotiations “pretty much fell apart this afternoon.”

In a meeting with Blue Dogs Friday, Waxman rescinded two previous concessions to help cut health care costs over time and ensure the government-sponsored health care won’t impede on the private market.

Update: MM has the details on Waxman allowing his Cmte to be BYPASSED an the bill taken to the floor without them:

Reuters:

The chairman of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, Representative Henry Waxman, said on Friday he would let the full House by pass his committee on healthcare reform if the panel could not reach agreement on its version of the legislation.

Per FOX: Rahm and TOTUS are pulling out all the stops at the very last minute and now Pelosi is again saying she will have the vote BEFORE August recess….Ed at HotAir has the details and audio…

We need to keep doing what we’re doing before we all wind up on the ‘health care access by age’ plan of Team TOTUS…

Call the House Energy and Commerce Committee members.  Tell them not to pass the government run health care bill out of committee.  Our sources tell us that all the Republicans will be voting against the legislation already so you may choose to focus on the Democrats.  Record your answers and the number of calls you made

Call the Blue Dog Democrats.  Record your answers and the number of calls you made.

Call the Senate Finance Committee tell them our economy cannot afford another massive government spending bill.  (This link may not be active now but it will be active before Thursday.) Record your answers and the number of calls you made.

Call your Senators and your Representative; tell them as a constituent you are asking them to vote NO on government take over of Health Care. Record your answers and the number of calls you made.

Call the Blue Dog Democrats AGAIN.  Record your answers and the number of calls you made.

*Sil courtesy of dvukhrecensky

UPDATE 2 AFTER THE BREAK:

Politico:

The negotiations between House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and seven conservative Democrats on his panel fell apart Friday afternoon after the chairman told reporters he could move the bill to the floor without a committee vote.

Arkansas Rep. Mike Ross, the top negotiator for conservative Democrats in the Blue Dog Coalition, told reporters Friday that the negotiations “pretty much fell apart this afternoon.”

In a meeting with Blue Dogs Friday, Waxman rescinded two previous concessions to help cut health care costs over time and ensure the government-sponsored health care won’t impede on the private market.

Asked how this leaves the negotiations, Ross said it “leaves the chairman with not enough votes to get it out of committee.”

Party leaders were on the brink of a deal to iron out regional disparities in Medicare payments, a major sticking point for a broad swath of Democrats, including a number of Blue Dogs. Leveling the reimbursement rates should attract more Democrats to the bill.

Waxman had agreed to include language in the bill that would grant an outside commission authority to recommend cuts to government-funded health care programs. According to Ross, he had also agreed to include Senate language that would let doctors and other health care providers negotiate rates with the government-sponsored public health care plans.

But in the Friday session, Waxman told the group that he was taking both concessions off the table, Ross said afterward.

The Blue Dogs are further inflamed that Waxman has threatened to circumvent his own committee to override their concerns.

“The statement was not very helpful at all,” Ross told a crowd of reporters just off the House floor.

And  circumventing the Energy and Commerce Committee would be a major departure from the Democrats’ campaign pledge to run a more transparent, open Congress than their Republican predecessors, and a top Democratic leader pushed back on the idea.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25383.html#ixzz0MCoDtPPp