Surprise Health Care Poses Challenges for Budget and Deficit Reduction

Shocking news only to those who refused to entertain the possibility health care legislation would do nothing but add to our fiscal problems:

Trying to survive the political storm around them, Democrats would postpone the toughest decisions until after November’s elections, when a presidential fiscal commission is scheduled to make its report to Congress. But there is no escaping the political bind that grips the party, exhausted from the debate over health care reform and under political pressure to extend Bush-era tax cuts.

Health care ate up most of the available Medicare savings and popular tax offsets that might otherwise be tapped to narrow the deficit. And as a result, it’s harder to dig out of the deficit hole, and little progress will be made in the short term absent a further surge in the economy.

Politico adds this feel-good bit to soften the damage:

The administration may be hoping for this. Economic adviser Larry Summers was almost heady Wednesday, posting his own White House blog celebrating the turnaround in the auto industry and early repayment by GM of some of its loans. But the stubbornly growing debt is a problem, even as Democrats appear frozen in place.

Too bad it is all hocus pocus:

New Chevy Kabuki: I like Larry Summers, but does he really think GM repaying $6.7 of the over $50 billion the taxpayers have sunk into it means there is a significant chance for "a return of most of the taxpayers’ investment in these companies"? The $6.7 billion "payback" seems like an obvious PR move designed to disguise GM's ongoing trouble, even as the Obama administration moves to sell its stake for a gigantic loss. ... Truth About Cars' Edward Niedermeyer explained all this back in November. ... If Obama had really made the "politically difficult" decision and forced the UAW to take even a mild cut in hourly wages, the story might be different, of course. ...

The loans were reported to have been paid back with TARP funds, enjoy those ads that are all over television.

EDIT:  More on the TARP shell game posted at Potluck.

What's the Good News on Unemployment Harry Reid?

You can't make this stuff up, really you can't. The good news according to Reid only 36,000 lost their jobs in February. The administration did their level best to tamp down expectations for this jobs report. Earlier in the week Larry Summers blamed all that global warming snow we had in February for unemployment figures. Summers' statement created the expectation that unemployment numbers would be much higher. This was all a nice set up for Obama to declare the loss:

"actually better than expected" considering the massive snowstorms that devastated the East Coast.

It's all about him you know.   Surprisingly,all  that global warming snow  seemed to have little effect on the unemployment rates and it remains to be seen whether the numbers were actually lower than expected.  Once again though Obama will not rest until everyone has a job.   We can expect Obama to pivot from health care soon right?  No, don't hold your breath on that one.  When Obama does manage to make his way towards focusing on jobs, he has quite the task ahead.  Ed Morrissey confirms the harsh reality:

Once again, the topline unemployment rate is masking the fact that we’re still losing jobs.  Remember that population growth requires around 100K-125K new jobs opening every month just to maintain the status quo.  We’re still losing jobs, and we’re pushing more people out of the work force.

 But don't worry, this is all good news:
H/T:  Memeorandum