Dems on record: don't discuss details--and lie!

"Do Not Allow Yourself to Get Into a Discussion of the Details"

by John Hinderacker/Powerline
That's the instruction the Democratic Party has given its spokesmen with regard to the health care debate, in particular the CBO's recent report. It's easy to see why: the Democrats' claims about their health care takeover fall apart if you look at it carefully.

Yesterday, the Democrats sent the memo that is reproduced below to their "health and communications staff." It instructs them in the "key points health staff and communications staff should make in the next 48 to 72 hours in the media ahead of Sunday's vote." The memo admits that the Democrats' claims about their government takeover plan are disingenuous and that it is therefore imperative that they not discuss the plan's details. For example:

Quote from today's CBO letter: "CBO and JCT estimate that enacting both pieces of legislation--[the Senate-passed bill] and the reconciliation proposal--would produce a net reduction in deficits of $138 billion over the 2010-2019 period as a result of changes in direct spending and revenues."

Sure. This results from the childishly simple fraud that the Democrats are using the CBO to perpetrate. The CBO will only estimate costs ten years out. So the Democrats' plan increases taxes right away, but waits four or five years to implement its most expensive provisions. So the Dems are comparing ten years of taxes against five years of spending. What a great way to reduce the deficit! Actually, if you compare revenues against expenditures in any given year after the plan is up and running, the plan hemorrhages money.

So Democrats are warned not to venture into substantive debate with their Republican opponents:

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. ... These anti-reform extremists [Ed.: That would be the American people.] are making a last-ditch effort to derail reform. Do not give them ground by debating details.

That explains why Republicans like Paul Ryan, who are always ready to debate details, are feeling so lonely these days.

One of the many dishonest features of the Democrats' effort to conceal the fact that their plan is a budget-buster is the assumption that reimbursements to physicians under Medicare will decline. This accounts for a large chunk of the Democrats' "savings." In fact, all knowledgeable observers understand that this alleged savings will be illusory because Congress will, in separate legislation, raise those reimbursement levels as in the past. The Democrats' memo acknowledges the party's dishonesty on this point, and urges its staffers to continue misleading the public: ...

Read the rest with the reproduced memos, claimed as not legitimate by Dems, of course: http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2010/03/025871.php