NBC and CBS completely skipped a new report indicating that Barack
Obama's health care law will add hundreds of billions of dollars to the
national debt. ABC's Good Morning America on Tuesday allowed a mere 17 seconds to the revelation that the law could balloon the deficit by $340 billion [1].
News reader Josh Elliott swiftly explained, "And President Obama's
health care law could up costing a lot more than previously expected, at
least according to one new study.
It found that the law could add some $340 billion to the federal deficit over the next decade." However, he also parroted talking points that, according to the White House, the study was simply "new math." This was the only mention on GMA. NBC's Today and CBS This Morning ignored the story.
The $340 billion number came from conservative economist Charles Blahous and the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. However, the number could end up being even higher than that, according to a piece in Inventors Business Daily [2]:
President Obama's signature health reform law will add as much as $527 billion to federal deficits over the next decade, not cut them as advertised, according to a report released Tuesday.
The Affordable Care Act will add as much as $1.2 trillion to federal spending between 2012 and 2021, the report also finds. Charles Blahous, who serves as one of Medicare's trustees, wrote the report, published by George Mason University's Mercatus Center.
A transcript of the April 10 news brief, which aired at 8:02am EDT, follows: