Health Care Reform The Senate version of health care reform legislation has now emerged from closed door negotiating sessions attended only by Democrats. So much for the transparency and bipartisanship Obama promised us. Democratic Party leadership has proudly and repeatedly represented both the Senate and House bills will "reduce the deficit." This is simply not true, much like most of the other misleading upbeat representations they have made about this legislation. Understand the Congressional Budget Office, which provided the deficit "reduction" forecasts, made its projections based on assumptions provided by the legislation's sponsors. If these assumptions are faulty, then the budget forecasts will be faulty. And these assumptions were faulty. As an example, the CBO was told to assume the health care "benefits" to be provided us would not start until either 2013 and 2014, depending on the bill, but the government would begin collecting the huge tax increases, the huge new "fees" (actually, new taxes), and the savings attributable to the planned cuts in Medicare benefits, virtually immediately. Ten years of income offset by only six or seven years of expenses leads to, you guessed it, more income than expenses and a deficit "reduction." The reality is that for those six to seven years with both income and expenses, expenses substantially exceed income, and over the long term additional revenue is going to have to be generated to cover this shortfall. And guess where the government is going to look for this additional revenue. That's right, your wallet. The Senate bill, in combination with the House legislation, totals approximately 4,000 pages and 40 lbs of paper. One has to wonder what other surprises have been secreted in this 4,000 pages of new law that will ultimately give the government total control over another 18% of our economy and 100% of our personal health care decisions. I don't trust any government, but particularly this administration, with this much control over my life and strongly suggest you shouldn't either. Ed Stewart

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