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Debt Watch
ByReferencing the recently released CBO letter, James Capretta of the New Atlantis writes:
Amid all the flurry of news in the hectic last days before the House recessed for the August break, something important went largely unnoticed a development that should be the knockout blow to the kind of sweeping health-care bill the Obama administration is pushing, at least as it has been cobbled together in the House. [...] CBO expects the spending in the bill would grow at a rate of least 8 percent annually into the indefinite future, while the revenue to pay for it will only grow at about 5 per cent per year. Hence the “substantial increases” in federal budget deficits beyond 2019.
I referred to this damning statistic in my column. It shows that even this modest attempt to curtail healthcare costs is, in fact, far too modest. And yet this modesty is being called fascism. What we are seeing is whether the American polity is capable of tackling its long term collective problems. So far, it's a struggle. And if Obama is unable to do it, who can?
(Hat tip: KHN's Kate Steadman)
