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Increased FY 2015 Spending Almost Entirely Due To Obamacare

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Peter Fricke Contributor
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Federal spending is growing by more than 8 percent for the first quarter of FY 2015, and Obamacare accounts for nearly the entire increase.

In a Sunday op-ed for the Washington Times, economist Stephen Moore claims that, “A new Congressional Budget Office report has blown the lid off Obama’s whopper about health coverage,” namely his claim that Obamacare would reduce the budget deficit.

“Most components of spending are relatively flat, and national defense outlays … are falling,” Moore notes, but “one area accounts for almost the entire budget blowout: Obamacare.” (RELATED: Gruber in 2009: Obamacare will not be Affordable)

Outlays for Medicaid have risen by about $21 billion (23 percent) since the fiscal year began on Oct. 1, according to the CBO report, “largely because some of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act did not take effect until January 2014.”

Those increases “were partially offset by reductions in spending for some other major programs,” such as a $9 billion decrease in military spending and an $8 billion reduction in unemployment insurance outlays, but overall spending was still about $19 billion in January 2015, compared to $10 billion in January 2014.

In addition, Moore asserts that, “the $7 billion in Obamacare ‘exchange subsidies’ so far this year brings the ‘Affordable’ Care Act spending boost in one year to nearly 30 percent.” (RELATED: Doctors Begin to Refuse Obamacare Patients)

In January alone, the CBO says, “Subsidy payments for health insurance purchased through exchanges created under the Affordable Care Act increased outlays by $2 billion,” compared with just $40 million spent on exchange subsidies in January 2014, when they first became available.

“This stampede of rising health care costs was so predictable that most budget experts—even liberals, privately—acknowledged that costs would spike when the new health insurance subsidies kicked in,” writes Moore.

“Now that Obamacare is the law of the land,” though, he points out that the White House seems to have changed its metric of success, and “openly boasts about how many people are relying on taxpayers for health coverage.”

“Meanwhile,” he said. “Many families are reporting hikes in premiums and fees,” with Obamacare premiums “up, on average, 7 percent to 15 percent over the last year for the broad coverage plans.” (RELATED: Report: Premiums Rising Faster Than 8 Years Before Obamacare COMBINED)

Rather than saving the average family $2,500 per year and “bending the cost curve down” for government health care spending, Moore concludes, Obamacare has instead “made the budget deficit much worse.”

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