New study warns of US long-term debt problems

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

WASHINGTON (AP) — A new government study says federal health care and retirement programs are threatening to overwhelm the federal budget and harm the economy in coming decades unless Washington finds the political will to restrain their growth.

The Congressional Budget Office report says government spending on health care and Social Security would double, relative to the size of the economy, in 25 years and that spending on other programs like defense, transportation and education would decline to its smallest level by the same measure since the Great Depression.

The report is one of a series by the agency and other budget watchdogs warning that spiraling long-term debt threatens to crowd out private investment, raise interest rates and limit Washington's ability to respond to a financial crisis.

http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/news-politics/20130917/US-Budget-Warning/

[GandD 5,966]

Ah, F it.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

There's a simple fix for this issue: House Republicans should hold 42 more votes to repeal Obamacare.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

and water is wet...all that reign in spending non-sense

It's just haters

[Harsh_77 716]

There's a simple fix for this issue: House Republicans should hold 42 more votes to repeal Obamacare.

Warren Buffett: Scrap Obamacare and Start Over

You know things are bad for President Obama when even Warren Buffett has soured on Obamacare and says that "we need something else."

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/warren-buffett-scrap-obamacare-and-start-over_756302.html

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Warren Buffett: Scrap Obamacare and Start Over

You know things are bad for President Obama when even Warren Buffett has soured on Obamacare and says that "we need something else."

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/warren-buffett-scrap-obamacare-and-start-over_756302.html

Harsh posts bunk as usual. The major problem with this right wing nuttery is that Buffett had this nonsense refuted via his office.

Now, I keep telling you that you need to verify the ####### the right wing echo chamber tries to hammer into your skull. But you keep refusing and continue to end up looking like a fool.

Bloggers say Warren Buffett recently turned against Obamacare

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In this CNBC interview in 2010, investor Warren Buffett offered skepticism about the bill that ultimately became Obamacare.

But some bloggers suggested his comments were recent.

This blog post on Money Morning appears to have set off a mini-frenzy about Warren Buffett and his views on President Barack Obama's health care law.

Conservative Internet bloggers are turning up three-year-old quotes from Warren Buffett and casting them as fresh evidence that American support is dwindling for President Barack Obama's health care law.

But the quotes are not properly identified as three years old and do not reflect Buffett's full thinking on the health care law.

It's unclear why or how the old quotes resurfaced.

But we started seeing the Buffett quotes in Facebook feeds on the morning of Sept. 17, 2013, after the Weekly Standard linked to it, starting its blog post, "You know things are bad for President Obama when even Warren Buffett has soured on Obamacare and says that 'we need something else.' "

The link went to a website called Money Morning, which posted an entry on Sept. 13 titled, "Buffett: Scrap Obamacare and Start All Over."

The post on the website includes quotes from Buffett, including:

• "Health care costs in the United States are like a tapeworm eating at our economic body."

• "We have a health system that, in terms of costs, is really out of control. And if you take this line and you project what has been happening into the future, we will get less and less competitive. So we need something else."

• "Attack the costs first, and then worry about expanding coverage. I would much rather see another plan that really attacks costs. And I think that's what the American public wants to see. I mean, the American public is not behind this bill."

The post goes on to paraphrase Buffett as saying he would scrap Obamacare and start over.

A variety of other conservative media outlets spotlighted the post in the past week as a development in the ongoing battle over the health care law, such as Wall Street Journal blogger James Taranto and Newsbusters.

But the comments come from an interview that Buffett, the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., gave to CNBC on March 1, 2010 -- three and a half years ago, before the bill was signed.

Buffett's office told PolitiFact that the blog reports do not reflect his views. Buffett "has never said or thought that Obamacare should be scrapped," said Debbie Bosanek, Buffett's assistant. She said she showed him our research and that he said our analysis "covered it very well."

So what did Buffett say in 2010? They can be found in a Politico article published at the time that summarized the interview.

That article also includes other tidbits excluded from the more recent blog posts that paint a more nuanced picture of his views.

• Buffett was referring to a bill that was still pending in Congress. At the time of his comments, a bill had passed the Senate, but lawmakers were still deciding how to get it through the House, so he’d have reason to think his comments might carry some weight in bargaining over details. He was not referring to the law after it was on the books, and he did not make his comments with three and a half years of hindsight from looking at its implementation.

• Buffett said the bill he was criticizing was still worth passing despite its imperfections. According to Politico, Buffett was asked on CNBC whether he would be in favor of scrapping the Senate’s version of the health care bill; he responded: "I would be." However, Politico also noted "that while he does not like the Senate bill, he’d vote for it in preference to doing nothing."

Buffett said in the interview, "If it was a choice today between plan A, which is what we've got, or plan B, … the Senate bill, I would vote for the Senate bill. But I would much rather see a plan C that really attacks costs."

It’s worth noting that in July 2012, just after the Supreme Court upheld the health care law, Buffett told Bloomberg TV that the court made the right decision.

Invoking the same metaphor, Buffett said health care is "the tapeworm, essentially, of the American economy, and we have not dealt with that yet." But he added, "Obamacare is a step in the right direction in many ways."

Shortly after we started looking into the blog posts, the Weekly Standard added an "update" to its post. It said, "It appears that Buffett made his anti-Obamacare comments in 2010, thereby showing that he, like most of the American people, has opposed Obamacare since even before it was passed — a point that Mark Hemingway addressed yesterday in response to USA Today’s implication that Americans’ widespread dislike of Obamacare is mostly attributable to Republicans’ efforts to fight it."

We sent inquiries to the Weekly Standard and Money Morning but did not hear back. We also sent an inquiry to Buffett and will publish a comment if he offers one.

Our ruling

A variety of blogs reprinted an item indicating that Warren Buffett recently said "Scrap Obamacare and Start All Over." However, the comments came from an interview in 2010, when the health care bill was still being debated, and are not based on the subsequent three and a half years of seeing the law implemented. If anything, comments by Buffett in 2012 suggest that he’s pleased to see the law being put into effect, despite the shortcomings he sees. The notion that Buffett had recently turned on a president he supported by souring on his signature health care law could have been easily debunked using Google searches. We rate the claim Pants on Fire.

[Harsh_77 716]

Harsh posts bunk as usual. The major problem with this right wing nuttery is that Buffett had this nonsense refuted via his office.

Now, I keep telling you that you need to verify the ####### the right wing echo chamber tries to hammer into your skull. But you keep refusing and continue to end up looking like a fool.

OK let it roll and we will see how it goes.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

OK let it roll and we will see how it goes.

Let what roll? The garbage you posted is debunked. It's false. It is nonsense. Get it?

You're trying to pass off falsehoods as fact. Got caught. Again.

[Harsh_77 716]

Let what roll? The garbage you posted is debunked. It's false. It is nonsense. Get it?

You're trying to pass off falsehoods as fact. Got caught. Again.

Poltifact is owned by Tampa Bay Times, which is known as liberal newspaper.

PolitiFact Florida shows no signs of becoming a credible, objective political fact-checking group despite being exposed for liberal, pro-Democrat bias in a 2012 Media Trackers Florida investigation.

PolitiFact Florida, a self-appointed political fact-checking group employed by the ultra-liberal Tampa Bay Times, has a glaring record of political bias, a Media Trackers Florida investigation revealed last August. The Media Trackers Florida analysis found PolitiFact gives strikingly more negative rulings against Republicans than Democrats, often employing twisted logic and flat-out falsehoods to justify its rulings.

http://mediatrackers.org/florida/2013/06/03/politifact-floridas-5-most-biased-rulings

[Pooky 3,355]

Who cares what Warren Buffett thinks.

The unions don't like it.

[Bugs 455]

This is not news. Heck, there was a documentary that I saw about this issue.

That film is 10 years old.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Poltifact is owned by Tampa Bay Times, which is known as liberal newspaper.

PolitiFact Florida shows no signs of becoming a credible, objective political fact-checking group despite being exposed for liberal, pro-Democrat bias in a 2012 Media Trackers Florida investigation.

PolitiFact Florida, a self-appointed political fact-checking group employed by the ultra-liberal Tampa Bay Times, has a glaring record of political bias, a Media Trackers Florida investigation revealed last August. The Media Trackers Florida analysis found PolitiFact gives strikingly more negative rulings against Republicans than Democrats, often employing twisted logic and flat-out falsehoods to justify its rulings.

http://mediatrackers.org/florida/2013/06/03/politifact-floridas-5-most-biased-rulings

What does it matter who owns Politifact? Buffett has clearly expressed that the blog reports do not reflect his view. Buffett has said last year that SCOTUS made the right decision upholding Obamacare and that Obamacare is a step to fix the "tapeworm in the economy" - a phrase he coined three years ago before Obamacare was even passed. Your right wing nut buddies didn't tell you that, of course. They made you believe that Buffett sort of came out now and suggested that Obamacare should be repealed. He hasn't. The quotes they present to you and other gullible folk are over three years old referring to draft legislation in Congress at the time. Your right wing nut masters have pulled another fast one on you. And you don't even know it. Dude, I'm trying to help you out here. The longer you go around pretending that there is any truth to that nonsense you peddled here, the more foolish you look.

You're really far down that hole already. It's time to stop digging.

Here's the interview that is at the center of it all. It dates back to March 1, 2010. There was no Obamacare on March 1, 2010.

Edited September 17, 2013 by Mr. Big Dog

[Ban Hammer 12,848]

What does it matter who owns Politifact?

one could ask the same question about fox news at times....

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

one could ask the same question about fox news at times....

ONE ! Constantly ask the same question about Fox News..Well actually more than one

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

one could ask the same question about fox news at times....

One could. Nothing wrong with being suspect of a given source but here the facts are all backed up with specific links and references. Hell, even the interview with Buffett where he made those remarks on CNBC is there. It's over three years old. That interview predates Obamacare. Buffett is on record supporting the law after it's passage. Bottom line, there is no doubt that the claim that was presented here - namely that Buffett has somehow now come out in favor of scrapping Obamacare - is plain simply not true. Now you are certainly free to grab a shovel and hop into that same hole that Harsh is busy digging himself deeper into. Or you can do the smart thing and not join him in that hole. What's it gonna be?

ONE ! Constantly ask the same question about Fox News..Well actually more than one