The federal government doesn't have the best track record when it comes to projecting the cost of new government programs, according to U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts.
In 1967, government officials predicted that Medicare would cost the country $12 billion by 1990.
The actual cost of the program in 1990 was $98 billion, said Pitts, of Chester County, who represents the 16th Congressional District.
When the government in the early 1980s launched the idea of establishing a burial ground for nuclear waste inside Nevada's Yucca Mountain, the projected cost of researching the initiative was $6.3 billion.
According to Pitts, the actual cost of the work was $79 billion.
So when President Obama's team estimates that his proposed health care plan will cost $950 billion per year, Pitts wonders what the real bill will be.
"The lesson is clear," he told a group of about 100 people gathered for a town hall meeting Monday night at Cocalico Middle School in Denver. "Government programs rarely come in at projected cost, and this new proposal for government health care intrusion into the market is the same thing.
"It is going to bankrupt our system."
Government spending highlighted the topics Pitts discussed with audience members Monday.
In no uncertain terms, Pitts said, the government is living well beyond its means these days, sending the federal deficit into the stratosphere.