In The New York Times, former Congressional Budget Office director Douglas Holtz-Eakin strips away the budget gimmicks that Democrats use to hide the cost of the Obama health plan:

Removing the unrealistic annual Medicare savings ($463 billion) and the stolen annual revenues from Social Security and long-term care insurance ($123 billion), and adding in the annual spending that so far is not accounted for ($114 billion) quickly generates additional deficits of $562 billion in the first 10 years. And the nation would be on the hook for two more entitlement programs rapidly expanding as far as the eye can see.

The bottom line is that Congress would spend a lot more; steal funds from education, Social Security and long-term care to cover the gap; and promise that future Congresses will make up for it by taxing more and spending less.

What could possibly go wrong? Best line: the CBO “is required to take written legislation at face value and not second-guess the plausibility of what it is handed. So fantasy in, fantasy out.” (The Congressional Budget Fantasy Office has a nice ring to it.)

Holtz-Eakin is currently president of the American Action Forum.