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Democrats Spin Their Medicare Spending Explosion Into A Narrative About GOP ‘Cuts’

Democrats inflate spending on government programs without anyone noticing and then attack Republicans for ‘cuts’ when they attempt to scale back these stealth spending increases.

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I recently explained how Democrat attacks on the Trump administration for ending a bailout of Medicare Part D insurers have no merit. But the political and policy problems go far deeper than that.

In late July, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released an analysis outlining how the agency got its estimates horribly wrong when predicting the cost of the drug pricing changes Democrats passed in the Inflation (Reduction) Act. The report is part and parcel of a trend among the left: inflate spending on government programs beyond all measure without anyone noticing and then attack Republicans for “cuts” when they attempt to scale back these stealth spending increases.

The opening paragraphs of the CBO report introduce what amounts to an 18-page mea culpa by the budget office:

In September 2022, following the [IRA’s] enactment in August, CBO projected that enacting those [drug pricing] provisions would lead to combined deficit reductions of $129 billion over the 2022–2031 period. … Since then, on the basis of new information, CBO has revised its projections. Evidence now indicates that the spending reductions attributable to drug price negotiation and inflation rebates have been smaller than CBO originally estimated. The costs of the Part D redesign have been significantly larger because of greater-than-anticipated increases in spending because of greater use of prescription drugs. As a result, the agency now projects that those provisions will combine to increase deficits over the 2022–2031 period.

In September 2022, following the [IRA’s] enactment in August, CBO projected that enacting those [drug pricing] provisions would lead to combined deficit reductions of $129 billion over the 2022–2031........

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