The Direct Cost of Obamacare  Leaving aside the legal question
(“Does the federal government have the constitutional basis for
absorbing the health care system?”) and the moral question
(“Whose responsibility to care for one’s neighbor is it
anyway?”) we come to the question of cost. The question we must
ask is “Are the direct costs of health care reform legislation
being accurately portrayed by its supporters?”  We have been
told by the President, et al that the bill(s) currently being
discussed will cost only $940 billion over ten years. That is
not an inconsiderable amount of money. But it would seem that
the figure is wrong:  The CBO projects that over the next four
years, less than two percent of the bill’s alleged “ten year”
costs would hit:  just $17 billion of the $940 billion in costs
that the Democrats are claiming.  In fact, the costs through
President Obama’s entire presidency, should he be reelected,
would be $336 billion.  What would the president leave behind
for his successor?  According to th