Empty promises

AP:

From the beginning of the health care debate, Obama has insisted that any overhaul must "bend the curve" of rapidly rising costs that threaten to swamp the budgets of government, businesses and families.

Asked by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., if the evolving legislation would bend the cost curve, the budget director responded that — as things stand now — "the curve is being raised."

Explained [CBO Director Doug] Elmendorf: "In the legislation that has been reported, we do not see the sort of fundamental changes that would be necessary to reduce the trajectory of federal health spending by a significant amount. And on the contrary, the legislation significantly expands the federal responsibility for health care costs."

(via Mankiw — QandO has more of the exchange)

Here's the full quote of Obama's insistence (one of the times--he may have phrased it differently in other venues)

What we have to do is bend the curve on these deficit projections. And the best way for us to do that is to reduce health care costs. That's not just my opinion; that's the opinion of almost every single person who has looked at our long-term fiscal situation.

"Have to do" ? So where is his veto threat of this new trillion-dollar (over ten years) Democratic spend-a-thon?

In lefty logic, does raising the deficit curve not count if you're simultaneously subsidizing more people's care?

Or is it that Obama doesn't actually plan to keep the curve in check but promised otherwise so as to better appeal to the center? More politics as usual, eh?

Update: Not so empty!