CBO claims Baucus plan will reduce deficits?

CBO released their estimate on Baucus' chairman's mark and claim 81 billion dollars will be "saved".  However estimating the bill in this particular phase is an exercise in futility because after all the amendments and merging with the house bill, the costs can be and will be significantly higher.  Still, CBO claims that in the next ten years we will enjoy an 81 billion dollar "saving" assuming of course that the current version of the bill is implemented as is.  CBO should know better than anyone this will never happen and releasing these numbers simply gives the liberals more ammunition in convincing liberal Republicans to get on board.   CBO also made specific mention that 94% of Americans will be insured up from 83%, or about 29 million Americans at the cost of 829 billion dollars.  Wow, those are some very expensive Americans, but what happens to the rest of us? 

- Those with excellent insurance providers will have to pay more, because "gold" insurance provides will be taxed.
- Drugs, MRIs, CAT scans and virtually every medical device will cost more to pay for those 29 million Americans.
- Seniors who are already dependent on government programs due to systematic government coercion over the past 35 years will see their benefits slashed and are powerless to stop it. 
- Medicaid will expand to cover millions of Americans and place impossible stress on individual states to raise revenue after federal subsidies dry up.
- Federal budget will spend more and more on government medical programs covering more and more people, but providing less service to manage costs. 
- Those Americans that are healthy enough to be without insurance will be fined thousands of dollars and threatened with jail time!  This is such a repugnant breach of government you should be calling your representative right now!  Just finish reading first.

There are no words to describe how awful this bill is and we are learning every day that lawmakers in Congress are playing games with us.  They refuse to read the bill because it is 1,000 pages, they are placing gag orders on insurance companies trying to educate their customers and they are threatening reconciliation (passing bill with 51 votes instead of 60) to push this bill through without adequate debate.  Instead of understanding the source of our problems both sides have pitted themselves in a bitter ideological debate over who is right and who is wrong most of the time without actually researching the facts.

We need a new discussion.

The federal government has violated the one document that all lawmakers swear to protect.  Our constitution.  Has everyone forgotten this simple fact?  In our constitution there are clear instructions on what the federal government can do and cannot do.  All powers not explicitly enumerated to the federal government falls to the states.  Never does this document state anything about health care. Our Congress has breached the one sacred set of laws that made this country great, but we are bickering over how to "reform" the industry properly?  Insanity.

There is only one way to reform.  Let me lay it out, because it's quite straight forward.

1. End federal tax subsidies to employers for health insurance.  We should not have an income tax in the first place, but now that we do Congress is meddling with our companies via the convoluted tax scheme they have invented.
2. End Medicare.  Unconstitutional.
3. End Medicaid match. If states want to pursue this madness they can do so, but they are funding a program they have no right in funding.
4. Shut down the FDA.  Unconstitutional and drives up drug costs by billions of dollars while preventing precious drugs from entering the market.

All money saved by shutting down Medicare, de-funding Medicaid and ending the FDA should translate into tax cuts to allow Americans to buy insurance coverage or do whatever else they want to do with OUR money.  Insurance premiums will drop virtually overnight allowing even the low-income families to purchase coverage. 

Done.