Senate Democrats Promise to Keep Health-Care Costs Down, Except When They Won't

Slate's John Dickerson links to this story in The Hill with the tweet: "At the same time Congress is promising to keep health care costs down, they're undoing past promises to keep costs down." It's true! From The Hill:

The Senate is looking to quickly move legislation costing more than $200 billion over 10 years that would adjust Medicare reimbursement rates for doctors, but it does not plan to pay for the bill with offsetting spending cuts or tax increases.

The AP explains the strategy behind this move:

By creating a two-bill approach, Democrats intend to claim the more comprehensive health care measure meets President Barack Obama's conditions — that it will neither add to deficits nor exceed $900 billion in costs over 10 years.

Granted, this approach may not work as planned. But the hope, it seems, is that by passing this quickly and separately from the main health-care bill, Democrats can hold on to their fishy budget projections.