Health Care Reform and Costs

The highlight for the GOP at last weeks televised torture health care summit was probably Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-WI) presentation on the budgetary gimmickry in the bill used to make it look cheaper and more fiscally responsible than it really is. Paul Ryan is a smart guy, so I was interested to see how accurate his presentation was. Enough readers badgered Ezra Klein into taking a close look, and he came up with a colossal post on the accuracy of Ryan's claims. His conclusion:

To sum up, then, Ryan makes some good points about the true cost of the bill and realities of the federal budget. But he purposefully omits any mention of the bill's expected savings, disingenuously attaches the price tag of a broken Republican policy onto the health-care reform bill, and selectively stops extrapolating trends when they don't fit his points. It's a presentation designed to make the bill look less fiscally responsible than it really is.

 The whole post is really wonky, but worth reading.