MORE WINGER HYSTERIA BASED ON A LIE

The Weekly Standard has falsely claimed that the Senate bill includes a section which makes the entire bill permanent and the Noise Machine is spreading the word. The offending passage is in Sec. 3403, "Independent Medicare Advisory Board":

15 ‘‘(C) LIMITATION ON CHANGES TO THIS
16 SUBSECTION.—It shall not be in order in the
17 Senate or the House of Representatives to con
18 sider any bill, resolution, amendment, or con
19 ference report that would repeal or otherwise
20 change this subsection.

The subsection referred to is "‘‘(3) LIMITATION ON CHANGES TO THE BOARD
22 RECOMMENDATIONS.—" and immediately after (C), we have this crucial exception:

21 ‘‘(D) WAIVER.—This paragraph may be
22 waived or suspended in the Senate only by the
23 affirmative vote of three-fifths of the Members,
24 duly chosen and sworn.

So, not only does this deal only with the recommendations of the Advisory Board, which cannot recommend rationing:

3 ‘‘(ii) The proposal shall not include
4 any recommendation to ration health care,
5 raise revenues or Medicare beneficiary pre
6 miums under section 1818, 1818A, or
7 1839, increase Medicare beneficiary cost
8 sharing (including deductibles, coinsur
9 ance, and copayments), or otherwise re
10 strict benefits or modify eligibility criteria.

the restriction on changing the recommendations can be overridden in the Senate.