Obamacare Repeal Reality

Once President Obama took office, Republicans in Congress, who hadn't batted an eyelash at lavish, unchecked spending during the Bush Presidency, suddenly found austerity to be their guiding principle. They claimed that cutting expenditures was to fight the deficit, but really it was to prevent the President from spending any money to rescue the economy or enact any meaningful reforms. Of course, during an economic downturn, the easiest way to economic recovery is to increase government spending. Austerity does the exact opposite. The principle of austerity delayed the economic recovery and contributed greatly to unemployment and our crumbling infrastructure. But the mantra of deficit reduction is still one of the Republicans' most frequent cries.

So what happens if the Supreme Court kills Obamacare?

Repealing Obamacare would increase the deficit by at least $137 billion or as much as $353 billion, a new Congressional Budget Office report published Friday finds.

The report, requested by Senate Republicans, uses two methods to measure the economic effects of Obamacare — one that looks at the provisions of the law itself, and one that looks at how the act's effects will ripple through the economy.

Yes, repealing Obamacare would explode the deficit. And this conclusion was reached by the new head of the CBO, a former Bush White House economist, who was supposed to use Republican math to support the Republicans in Congress.

As Rick Perry would say, "Oops."

And if you think this will make Congressional Republicans reconsider the wisdom of destroying Obamacare for even an instant, then you have not been paying attention.