There Is A Real Deficit In Congress: It’s Called “Brains.”
by PV
(The article below was sent to the Vine anonymously)
In Congress, the name on the bill rarely has anything to do with its content. The Deficit Reduction Act is a perfect case in point. While the title makes you think Congress is reducing the deficit, the bill is full of things that actually drive up federal spending.
Take Medicare, for example. The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 supposedly shrinks the deficit in Medicare eliminating wasteful practices like unnecessary x-rays, CAT-Scans and MRIs - a good thing.
Unfortunately, the bill cuts the amount the feds pay for these tests at lower-cost independent-imaging centers and force people who really need them go to a hospital, which is three or four times the cost – a bad thing.
For example, Life Test in Sandy Springs charges about $250 for an MRI to see if your heart is clogged and you need a by-pass. In any hospital on Pill Hill, the cost is significantly more. By making more people go to hospitals for these tests, the feds end up spending more tax dollars – not less.
Truth-in-advertising requires Congress to change the name of the bill to the Deficit Inflation Act. With two doctors – Tom Price and Phil Gingery - in the Georgia delegation, you’d think they’d know this stuff. Did they vote against the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005? Of course not!
Who can vote against something so noble as deficit reduction?
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April 19th, 2006 at 1:30 pm
The Deficit Reduction Act is nothing more than a PR move. The GOP in Congress needs to change their course if they want to keep their elective offices.