July 30, 2009
Tevi Troy and I co-authored a piece for the current edition of National Review on the emerging health care plans in Congress. Although much has already been written about the structural flaws of these plans — their immense costs and excessive reliance on governmental control — their details are just as worrisome....
July 29, 2009
Let’s give the bipartisan “group of six” senators — Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus and five of his committee colleagues — their due. More than any others, they are responsible for the likely derailment of the House’s massive health care overreach. Rank-and-file House Democrats — and not...
July 28, 2009
The House bill would add $239 billion to the federal budget deficit over the coming decade, according to Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projections. That’s bad enough, coming as it would on top of the $11 trillion in deficits that are already expected to occur over the period 2009 to 2019 under the Obama budget plan. But...
July 23, 2009
The health care bill under consideration in the House will cost at least $1.5 trillion over a decade, not $1 trillion as advertised, and raise taxes by $800 billion over the same period. Moreover, the bill is likely to cost even more than that because of built-in pressure for further legislative expansion. These are some of the points I...
July 23, 2009
I was interviewed recently by Jennifer Rubin of Pajamas TV on the state of the health care debate in Congress. That interview is available here.
July 22, 2009
The desperate search continues. Shortly after the July 4th congressional recess, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid effectively killed the idea of placing a cap on the amount of employer-paid premiums that can be paid on behalf of a worker and still remain tax free. Unions have always been vehemently opposed to any limitation on the...
July 20, 2009
Yesterday, the Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) did everyone a favor and spoke some serious truth to power: The health care bills under consideration in Congress will make our long-term budget outlook worse, not better, Elmendorf said, and that would be very bad for our economic future. Elmendorf’s assessment,...
July 15, 2009
It’s now a clear pattern. When the president senses his position is vulnerable to a factual criticism, he asserts emphatically that the opposite is true — without ever providing evidence to back up his claim. Here’s the latest example. According to Politico, President Obama told skeptical Blue Dog Democrats last evening...
July 10, 2009
The Obama administration began the year promising fundamental reforms in health care to “bend the cost-curve” with painless “delivery-system reform.” Peter Orszag, the Obama administration’s budget director, went so far as to claim the administration would institute reforms in Medicare and Medicaid that...
July 8, 2009
The Obama administration has been desperately trying to create a sense of momentum around its health-care push, which is why it is touting the latest “deal” with hospital associations so heavily. But there are clear signs that Congressional Democrats and the Obama White House have steered the health-care effort into...