Until today I had not spent much time considering the CLASS provisions of the ACA. I had no idea if they were fiscally sound, in and of themselves, or not. I had not made up my mind. But, I will admit, I was inclined to not believe those who were telling me there was a big problem because the very same people tend to tell me the entire law is a steaming load of … Well, I don’t believe that.
Nevertheless, something important happened. It’s all documented in the updates to my last CLASS Act post. I now see that there is broad consensus, including from the CBO, that there are long-term fiscal problems with that part of the law. That being the case, it is something that ought to be addressed legislatively and the scoring of the net effect used to update the official budget projection of the ACA. This is not a condemnation of or commentary on any other provision of the law.
All it took was a compelling body of evidence. Thank you to those who put it in front of me. As usual, I’m more than happy to follow it.
UPDATE: And yet, a nagging question remains. Some of the analysis of the CLASS act to which people point was conducted prior to passage of the final legislation. So, there is still room for some uncertainty here. Did the final legislation change sufficiently to warrant reconsideration? Has the CBO come back to reassess it in detail?
