Here are ten pieces of conventional wisdom about health care reform that I think are wrong.
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Tag Archives: budget deficit
CBO scores the Kennedy-Dodd bill
16 June 2009 
43 Comments
CBO says a part of the Kennedy-Dodd bill would cost more than $1.3 trillion over 10 years and insure 16 million more people. When the policy is in full effect in 2015, half the people who would receive subsidies already have private health insurance, and taxpayers would pay more than $9,000 per newly insured person.
Read more How to measure health care cost control
12 June 2009 18 Comments
I want to propose a four-part test for measuring any particular bill on health care cost control. short run long run Federal deficit 1 2 Government health care spending X 3 Private health care spending X 4 In each case, I will define the test so that “yes” is a good outcome: Test 1: The […]
Read more Parsing the President’s health care reform letter
3 June 2009 11 Comments
The White House has released a letter from the President to the two Senate Chairmen who are working on (different) versions of health care reform: Senator Kennedy (D-MA), Chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. The letter is dated yesterday and […]
Read moreBaseline games
21 April 2009 6 Comments
Suppose I bought an iPhone yesterday for $500. Suppose I argue that I will save $2000 this week, because I intend to refraining from buying an additional iPhone today, nor will I buy one this Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday. Suppose I plan to buy a new flat screen TV tomorrow for $1500. Can I claim […]
Read more Deficits and debt under the President’s budget
20 April 2009 6 Comments
There has been a lot of debate about whether the President’s budget improves or worsens the future deficit picture. This is a debate mostly about baselines – what do you assume would happen otherwise? Rather than engaging in that debate here, I am going to look at the results of what the President has proposed. […]
Read more America’s long-run fiscal problem is spending growth, not taxes
16 April 2009 18 Comments
Yesterday I wrote about the history of tax increases since World War II, and about the battle over the total level of taxation. Now I want to turn to spending. I am a low-tax guy. I have worked on tax issues for 12 of my 15 years in Washington, helping elected officials lower taxes and […]
Read moreNew York Times to Senator Reid on health care: Speak loudly and carry a little twig
14 April 2009 4 Comments
Critical policy fights sometimes happen long before a bill comes up for a vote. Legislative process and strategy intersect early to determine the balance of power for a future vote on policy. Health care legislation is several months away from a floor vote, but the tactical maneuvering has already begun. Fair warning: we’re going to […]
Read more Does the President's budget cut the deficit in half?
8 April 2009 3 Comments
Budget Director Peter Orszag wrote on his blog yesterday that he thinks “Debt held by the public net of financial assets is the most meaningful measure of current federal debt.” I wrote earlier today why I think Director Orszag’s new metric is misleading and dangerous. Now, however, I’m going to take his argument and apply […]
Read moreThe Mid-Session Review
12 July 2007 Comments Off
The President spoke about the budget yesterday when we released the Mid-Session Review, the summer update of the budget numbers.
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