"We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy." — Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
With the fog of controversy still swirling around ObamaCare — which remains as unpopular as ever with the American people — we are beginning to find out just what is in the bill.
The latest revelation: A "glitch" in the legislation will extend Medicaid coverage — a safety net program intended for the poor and indigent — to middle class retirees between the ages of 62 and 65 who are eligible for Social Security, but not yet eligible for Medicare.
So, a monstrous, complex piece of legislation is rammed through Congress, riddled with payoffs to on-the-fence legislators, passed by politicians who defiantly proclaimed they hadn't read the bill, and it's producing these kinds of "glitches" and unintended consequences? You don't say?
Government bureaucracy just isn't what it used to be, we guess.
The upshot of this will be about 3 million more people added to the Medicaid rolls in 2014. While Governors around the country are seeking to tighten Medicaid eligibility rules to deal with their exploding state budgets, this "anomaly" in ObamaCare will expand Medicaid to millions of middle class early retirees it was never intended to cover by not counting Social Security benefits as income in determining eligibility.
While it remains unclear exactly how much it will cost to cover this new group of Medicaid-eligible citizens, we know one thing for sure: We can't afford it. With our ballooning debt and budget deficits, we're already out of money.
The bill was passed. We're finding out what's really in it. And the fog of controversy continues to swirl.