Yesterday I posted and described the draft Kennedy-Dodd health care bill. Today I would like to do the same for an outline produced by House Democrats. Here is a three-page outline of “Key Features of the Tri-Committee Health Reform Draft Proposal in the House of Representatives,” dated yesterday (June 8, 2009). The three committees are: […]
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Tag Archives: subsidies
Understanding the Kennedy health care bill
8 June 2009 
383 Comments
Over the weekend a draft of Senator Kennedy’s (D-MA) health care bill leaked. After playing with Adobe Acrobat, here is the text of the draft Kennedy bill as a text file (173 K), and as a single Acrobat file (3.4 MB). Update: I fixed the broken link to the PDF. Unlike the leaked version, both of […]
Read more By focusing only on covering the uninsured, are we solving the wrong problem?
11 April 2009 17 Comments
The traditional Beltway logic on health care reform goes like this: The problem is that 46 million Americans lack health insurance. (I addressed why this number is incorrect and misleading last Thursday.) Government should provide health insurance to those 46 million people, or at least pay for it. Let’s expand a taxpayer-subsidized health insurance program […]
Read more How many uninsured people need additional help from taxpayers?
9 April 2009 144 Comments
When discussing health insurance we frequently hear that there are “46 million uninsured” in America. This figure is from a monthly survey of about 50,000 households done by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau. This Current Population Survey (CPS) then uses statistical techniques to paint a picture of the entire U.S. population. […]
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 more Let's not hide $1.4 trillion of IOU's
8 April 2009 5 Comments
Yesterday on his blog the President’s Budget Director, Peter Orszag, asks himself and then answers the question, “How much does the federal government owe?” This sounds like a technical question of concern only to “those of us wearing the green eyeshades,” but the Director’s suggested answer has dangerous ramifications, and could mislead, or at least […]
Read moreThe President's strong free trade language in Strasbourg
6 April 2009 4 Comments
I would like to compliment and thank President Obama for saying this in Strasbourg, France last Friday: As we take these steps, we also affirm that we must not erect new barriers to commerce; that trade wars have no victors. We can’t give up on open markets, even as we work to ensure that trade […]
Read moreIs $700 billion enough? Part 3: Secretary Geithner says we have more room
31 March 2009 8 Comments
The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Treasury says “it has about $134.5 billion left in its financial-rescue fund.” Secretary Geithner addressed this question Sunday on This Week with George Stephanopolous.
Read more Health spending fallacy
27 March 2009 17 Comments
There are two problems driving future deficits: rising health care costs, and the aging of the population. To fix our long-term deficit problem, we need to address both factors, and spending trends in all three programs.
Read more Auto loans, part 2: options for the President
27 March 2009 4 Comments
The Obama Administration is in the midst of rolling out the President’s new game plan. I’d like to walk you through the options the President faces.
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