Yesterday the memo below is said to have been making the rounds among Democrats. The memo clearly spells out how to deceive the public regarding the “doctor fix” and details behind the CBO score.
We cannot emphasize enough: do not allow yourself (or your boss) to get into a discussion of the details of the CBO scores and textual narrative. Instead, focus only on the deficit reduction and the number of Americans covered. ...
Second, most health staff are already aware that our health proposal does not contain a "doc fix." Some Republicans have repeated CBO's November 18 letter that says "the sustainable growth rate (SGR) mechanism governing Medicare's payments to physicians has frequently been modified ... to avoid reduction in those payments, and legislation to do so again is currently under consideration in the Congress." The inclusion of a full SGR repeal would undermine reform's budget neutrality. So, again, do not allow yourself (or your boss) to get into a discussion of the details of CBO scores and textual narrative. ...
As most health staff knows, Leadership and the White House are working with the AMA to rally physicians support for a full SGR repeal later this spring. However, both health and communications staff should understand we do not want that policy discussion discussed at this time, lest it complicate the last critical push to health care reform.
While we all know that the Democrats handed the CBO completely unrealistic assumptions and other tricks to make sure they got back numbers that make ObamaCare look like it reduces the deficit, it is quite another thing to see them admit it in black and white. Democrats took out the doctor fix because if it was included, they could not show ObamaCare reducing the deficit. Instead, they will handle the doctor fix separately (it will still grow the deficit mind you).
Democrats are now denying that the memo is theirs. They are saying it is a GOP Hoax. Ed Morrissey at Hot Air says he got confirmation that the memo does exist and was being passed around on the Hill, but he cannot say if it came from Republicans or Democrats.
Wherever it came from, there is a lot of truth to it. Throughout the final stretches of health care debate, I have not seen a single Democrat on television get into the nitty gritty details of ObamaCare or the CBO numbers. They do not talk about the taxes, the new IRS agents, or the details of the mandates or anything else. Even Obama stayed away from any real details when Bret Baier grilled him. So it would be quite believable that this memo is actually theirs. I am sure we will find out one way or another where the memo really came from, but will we find out before the big vote?
Further reading can be found at PowerLine, The Other McCain and Conservatives 4 Palin.
Via: Memorandum
Via: Talking Points Memo
Via: Big Government
Via: Hot Air