After barely more than a year in operation, ObamaCare is now projected to require more than a trillion dollars in deficit spending over the next decade, according to the new CBO report. Tweet Buried in a new report by the Congressional Budget Office is the latest admission that ObamaCare was sold on a foundation of lies. Back in 2009, President Barack Obama told a joint session of Congress that “our health care system is placing an unsustainable burden on taxpayers.” “Put simply, our health care problem is our deficit problem. Nothing comes close. Nothing else.” The president’s speech was designed to be all things to all people: ObamaCare would cover millions of uninsured Americans at no extra cost to taxpayers. Regarding the health law’s fiscal neutrality, President Obama was emphatic. “First, I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits – either now or in the future. I will not sign it if it adds one dime to the deficit, now or in the future, period. And to prove that I’m serious, there will be a provision in this plan that requires us to come forward with more spending cuts if the savings we promised don’t materialize.” Before concluding his pledge, the president couldn’t resist taking a swipe at his predecessor. “Now, part of the reason I faced a trillion-dollar deficit when I walked in the door of the White House is because too many initiatives over the last decade were not paid for – from the Iraq war to tax breaks for the wealthy. I will not make that same mistake with health care.” Oops. After barely more than a year in operation, ObamaCare is now projected to require more than a trillion dollars in deficit spending over the next decade, according to the new CBO report. Over the next ten years, the federal government will likely have to spend $1.933 trillion via ObamaCare, while taking in only $643 billion in related taxes, penalties and fines. That leaves cost overruns that – you guessed it – will add $1.35 trillion to the federal deficit thanks to President Obama’s signature domestic initiative. In other words, the man who publicly chastised George W. Bush for leaving a trillion dollar deficit more than doubled it with a single piece of legislation. So far, the White House is ignoring CBO’s bombshell projection, making no attempt to honor the president’s promise to cut spending elsewhere to pay for ObamaCare’s deficit increase. Perhaps the president’s advisers don’t want to draw attention to the fact that the $1.35 trillion deficit number translates into a very costly unfunded mandate. In order to enroll 24 to 27 million previously uninsured Americans in ObamaCare, federal taxpayers will have to pony up at least $50,000 per enrollee. But even that doesn’t tell the full story. The CBO also estimates that ObamaCare still leaves between 29 and 31 million non-elderly Americans without medical insurance. Covering this group would ratchet up spending even more. Of the many reasons ObamaCare lacks legitimacy, one of the most important is the deliberate deception practiced by its authors. Jonathan Gruber, the now disgraced health economist who admitted that supporters wrote ObamaCare in a “tortured” way to generate a deficit neutral CBO score, said that “lack of transparency is a huge political advantage.” “Basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really, really critical to getting the thing to pass.” Another important ingredient was having a president audacious enough to tell every Member of Congress and a nationwide television audience that he cared more about fiscal responsibility than entrenching government control of the health care industry, knowing the opposite was true. It’s past time for the American people to get the health reform debate they deserve. In the coming months as Republicans in Congress hammer out ObamaCare alternatives, they should be quick to remind people that real policy-making involves trade-offs. We can’t afford any more lies.