Obamacare Will Break the Bank, Not Cut the Deficit

James C. Capretta: The White House and its congressional allies are trying to suggest that the latest Congressional Budget Office (CBO) cost estimate proves that their health-care plan is fiscally responsible.

But, in fact, the latest CBO projections confirm — again — that the president’s health plan would pile another unfinanced entitlement program on top of the unaffordable ones already on the federal books.

According to CBO, the new entitlement spending in the plan would cost $216 billion by 2019, and then increase by 8 percent every year thereafter. In other words, the president’s plan would stand up another health entitlement program that will grow much faster than the nation’s economy or revenue base. The changes the Democrats would make to the Senate-passed bill would make the entitlement program even more expensive.

Over a full ten years of implementation, the cost of the new entitlement spending would reach $2.5 trillion, at least, not the $1 trillion advertised by the White House.