NOT ONLY WILL WE SPEND MORE ON YOUR HEALTH BUT WE'LL REDUCE THE COSTS OF HEALTH CARE!:

Obama's Health Care Push Faces Citizens' Mounting Concern Over Deficit (JAKE TAPPER and HUMA KHAN, Aug. 12, 2009 , ABC News)

[R]egaining the momentum may become increasingly difficult in light of the soaring federal deficit, which increased by $180 billion in July alone. At a record $1.27 trillion, the deficit is heading toward $2 trillion by the end of the fiscal year. Citizens at town hall meetings are expressing concern over the government's ability to pay for health care reform without adding to the deficit.

"The initial cost is over a trillion dollars for a down payment. Who is going to pay for this bill?" a woman shouted at Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., at a town hall meeting in Lebanon, Pa., yesterday. "My children and my grandchildren are going to pay for this bill."

Supporters of the president's health care reform push point out that spiraling health care costs in Medicare and Medicaid are a huge part of the deficit problem, and reform is necessary to tackle the issue.

Yet they also have to convince people that the bill won't reduce spending on those programs. How do you square that circle?

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 13, 2009 6:46 AM