Health Care Debate: Were Medicare Savings Counted Twice?

Sen. Jeff Sessions is convinced they were …

Savings from Medicare touted by Democrats as a means to pay for the Senate health care bill were double-counted and the legislation will increase the deficit, not decrease it, a senior Republican senator said Wednesday, citing a new letter from the Congressional Budget Office.

I’m not inclined to give unwarranted credibility to FOX News or the GOP, but I thought this was a serious-enough allegation to click through to the actual CBO letter, or at least, the portion of that letter that Sen. Sessions’ staff posted to his Web site.

A lot of good that did me. I’m still confused. Here’s hoping that, by drawing attention to this matter, the Internet’s huddled masses can help fact check it. As of 12:30 p.m. ET, I didn’t see anything on Memeorandum that would help — and frankly, I didn’t have time to dig deeper.

So if you’re out there, understand these things better than I do, have a few minutes to spare, and know how to start the evaluation process — have at it. And please, share your results.