By: Jeffrey Klein
Examiner.com

Remember Nancy Pelosi’s famously idiotic and recorded rant on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, while Speaker, wherein she declared … ‘we’ve got to pass the [2,000+ page healthcare] bill–so we can learn what’s in it?’

The first painful lesson Democrats learned after passing it, was that voting ‘against the will of the people’ cost them nearly 90 seats in both the House and Senate during the tumultuous November 2010 mid-term elections–most of whom were replaced by Tea Party Conservatives, who have been challenging and exposing their corrupt liberal/socialist ideology ever since.

Also, at the time, it was estimated by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to cost $940 Billion over the 10 years beginning in 2009–but, that only included six years of benefit payments, due to the delay of implementation, according to a very expedient article today by Philip Klein, Senior Political Editor at The Washington (DC) Examiner, our sister publication.

My colleague, Klein, stated that Democrats employed many accounting tricks when they were pushing through the national health care legislation, the most egregious of which was to delay full implementation of the law until 2014, so it would appear cheaper under the CBO’s standard ten-year budget window and, at least on paper, meet Obama’s pledge that the legislation would cost “around $900 billion over 10 years.”

However, the next most damning moment for the Obamacare “deception,” was when HHS Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, caved under punishing questions during her first appearance since Obamacare became law, before the House Energy and Commerce–Health Subcommittee, one year ago, as reported in Amy Carey’s Daily Caller article on March 4, 2011.

Committee member, Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL), posed a line of questioning about whether $500 billion in Medicare cuts were used to sustain the program or pay for the law, in effect, being double-counted; it won’t work, even in Washington, D.C.–especially when you are throwing half-a-Trillion dollars around.

Shimkus: “There is an issue here on the budget … your attacking Medicare on the CR when your law cut $500 billion from Medicare.”

“Then you’re also using the same $500 billion to what? Say your [sic] funding health care. Your own actuary says you can’t do both. […] What’s the $500 billion in cuts for–preserving Medicare, or funding the health-care law?”

Sebelius: “Both.”

“I was shocked to hear the secretary admit that $500 billion is double-counted in the health-care law,” said Shimkus after Thursday’s hearing. “We knew the health-care law’s actual cost was much greater than originally told to the public. And now, the truth is slowly coming out in administration reports and testimony.”

Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA), the chairman of the subcommittee added, “The same dollar can’t be used twice. This is the largest of the many budget gimmicks Democrats used to claim Obamacare would reduce the deficit.”

When contacted by The Daily Caller, Richard Sorian, Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs had this to say:

“The scoring of the Affordable Care Act is entirely consistent with how legislation has been scored for the 30 years, under Presidents of both parties, and Congresses of both parties. Savings in programs like Medicare and Social Security are scored as improving the solvency of those programs and reducing the deficit.”

Really…

Now, the CBO has filed its most recent scoring report, which begins in 2013 and includes nine years of benefits payments–estimating that it will cost $1.76 Trillion–nearly double the original estimate, according to Klein’s reporting.

Next year, if the law isn’t overturned by the Supreme Court or repealed by then, given that in 2022, the last year available, the gross cost of the coverage expansions are $265 billion, we’re likely looking at about $2 trillion over the first decade–more than double what Obama advertised.

A similar set of circumstances occurred recently, and it was roundly labeled “Fraud.”

But, in that case, Bernie Madoff was prosecuted by the government, and is now serving his 150 year sentence in federal prison–for defrauding just a few thousand Americans out of just $65 Billion.

Now imagine if the 224 House Democrats, 60 Democrat Senators and President Barack Obama, were to receive the same “equal justice” for perpetrating this Obamacare “fraud” on all of the American people–Washington, D.C. would instantly become a “Democrat-Free Zone.”

Amen.