Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Ezra Klein is a tease

I saw the headline of his article, "The $900 Billion Mistake" and I thought to myself, right on dude! You have come to your senses. Of course I shoulda knowed better; the mistake the article laments is limiting the cost of health insurance reform to only $900 billion!

Yes, according to Ezra:

"The problem is that the number, which was chosen at a point of political weakness for health-care reform and the Obama administration, is too low. Most experts think you need closer to $1.1 trillion for a truly affordable plan. Limiting yourself to $900 billion ensures that the subsidies won't be quite where you need them to be..."

Now I am just a dumb Okie, but that is not my understanding of what the word "affordable" means. I never knew it could mean "more expensive"

2 comments:

Norman said...

Maybe someone should point out that in basic micro, consumers *maximize* utility and *minimize* expenditure. Not the other way around.

Anonymous said...

Ezra Klein you're missing the point. In politics its about better to guess low and be wrong. Of course it will be more then $900 bil; of course it will be more the $1.1 Tril. I defy anyone to name me a social program that has stayed on budget.