Fred Hiatt Makes Up Statistics To Claim Health Care Would Bankrupt America
Fred Hiatt Makes Up Statistics To Claim Health Care Would Bankrupt America
In this morning’s Washington Post, editorial page editor Fred Hiatt argues that the House health care bill “could take America a step closer to bankruptcy” and harm “the poor and vulnerable.”
Hiatt acknowledges that “[i]n a country as wealthy as America, no one should have to go without medical care” and remains hopeful that the House health care bill “would take America a giant step closer to” insuring all Americans. But, he also sees a “dilemma.” “The bill also could take America a step closer to bankruptcy. And for progressives in particular — for those who believe that government has a mission to help the poor and protect the vulnerable — that prospect should be alarming.”
But since the CBO’s analysis of the House health care bill doesn’t support Hiatt’s contention that it would bring America “a step closer to bankruptcy,” Hiatt relies on the CBO’s analysis of the President’s budget and implies that it’s Obama’s health “plan”:
The root difficulty is Obama’s insistence that the nation can afford a large new social program without raising taxes on anyone who earns less than $250,000 per year. Under his plan, according to a CBO analysis, the government will be spending 24.5 percent of gross domestic product — the total value of the national economy — by 2019 while raising only 19 percent in revenue: a huge, unsustainable gap.
The 24.5% of GDP isn’t a measure of government spending as a result of the House/Obama health care bill. It’s a measure of the outlays of all of the President’s policies in his 2010 budget in 2019 and does not capture the effects of health care reform or the House bill.
According to the CBO, the House health care bill — the one that Hiatt claimed “could take America a step closer to bankruptcy” — would actually “reduce the federal deficit by $9 billion in 2019″ and, in the decade following 2019, the “the legislation would slightly reduce federal budget deficits in that decade relative to those projected under current law—with a total effect during that decade that is in a broad range between zero and one-quarter percent of GDP.”
13 Responses to “Fred Hiatt Makes Up Statistics To Claim Health Care Would Bankrupt America”
Register
RSSLogin
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog RollAbout Wonk RoomContact Us
Donate
Interesting article, thanks for posting
November 9th, 2009 at 7:12 pmHiatt already told us the other day that perpetual war is crucial for Americans and that health care is not.
As Somerby pointed out all summer, these dopes keep making resort to health care costs as a percentage of GDP. If you boil it down to cost per capita, it is clear that our health care system right now is completely out of control by comparison to every other advanced nation’s. The French spend less than half as much per capita and get better health outcomes. Surely Hiatt isn’t saying that France can do something that we can’t, is he?
November 9th, 2009 at 7:45 pmUmmm, jeez. What to say? Doesn’t Hiatt have a boss who can call him up and say “Ya know, Fred, I like you and all, but we’re going to have to let you go because your job requires high school graduate-level reading comprehension.” Who thought he would be good at this job?
November 9th, 2009 at 7:49 pmRemember the definition of insanity: doing exactly the same thing over and over and expecting a different result ? Why do you continue to analyze Fred Hiatt ? The guy is a doofus.
November 10th, 2009 at 6:09 amHiatt isn’t a doofus. He’s a mendacious, bloodthirsty skinflint who also happens to be the executive editor of the once proud and still influential WaPo. The man is all about beating ploughshares into swords.
November 10th, 2009 at 8:45 amexecutive editor of the editorial page, of course
November 10th, 2009 at 8:46 amYour “liberal media” at work.
November 10th, 2009 at 9:12 amDon’t blame Hiatt. He simply writes what his masters The Graham Family wants.
Why does the Graham Family dislike the House Bill? Might want to look at wow does the House Bill raise funds, and how does the Senate Bill raise funds.
*bingo*
I have no love for Hiatt. He’s willing to lie left and right to forward the agenda of his paper’s owners. But when the NY Post starts rolling out the b.s., we blame it on Murdoch’s agenda. It’s really well past time to stop blaming Hiatt and put it on the Grahams. They’re far more likely to be embarassed at some point by being constantly exposed as promoting an agenda that lies to the paper’s readers and is destroying the quality built up by their beloved Mom.
John
November 10th, 2009 at 9:17 amYour concern has been noted.
November 10th, 2009 at 9:54 amThis is an excellent post, but it leaves out the punchline: By relying on the CBO analysis of a budget that excludes the healthcare bill, Hiatt is really saying that we can’t afford the policies he most strongly supports–wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and increases to the Pentagon budget. In effect, Hiatt concedes that he’s been advocating national bankruptcy for the last seven years.
November 10th, 2009 at 10:07 amShorter Fred Hiatt:
Our current tax system is “regressive.”
Let’s solve that problem by raising taxes on ordinary Americans (treat employer provided insurance as taxable income) instead of by raising taxes on the rich, as the House bill does.
November 10th, 2009 at 11:07 amThe problem with Hiatt is that it’s hard to tell when he’s being dishonest and when he’s being stupid. In this case, I think it’s probably both.
November 10th, 2009 at 12:13 pmOne would have hoped that her kids, and Pinch, would have fallen closer to the tree. Alas …
November 10th, 2009 at 12:29 pm