Samuelson Blasts Health Reform Economics

Robert Samuelson is notable for his middle-of-the -road economic analyses in a major left-of-center periodical. In the Washington Post, he blasts the stupidity of the Obamacare proposal from the economic perspective.

There is an air of absurdity to what is mistakenly called "health-care reform." Everyone knows that the United States faces massive governmental budget deficits as far as calculators can project, driven heavily by an aging population and uncontrolled health costs. As we recover slowly from a devastating recession, it's widely agreed that, though deficits should not be cut abruptly (lest the economy resume its slump), a prudent society would embark on long-term policies to control health costs, reduce government spending and curb massive future deficits. The administration estimates these at $9 trillion from 2010 to 2019. The president and all his top economic advisers proclaim the same cautionary message.

So what do they do? Just the opposite. Their far-reaching overhaul of the health-care system -- which Congress is halfway toward enacting -- would almost certainly make matters worse. It would create new, open-ended medical entitlements that threaten higher deficits and would do little to suppress surging health costs. The disconnect between what President Obama says and what he's doing is so glaring that most people could not abide it. The president, his advisers and allies have no trouble. But reconciling blatantly contradictory objectives requires them to engage in willful self-deception, public dishonesty, or both.

Read it all.

President Obama, Nancy Pelosi and the other goofballs pushing health care reform have the economic unerstand of a middle school Marxist. They understnd so little about how economics really works, it is truly scary to have them in power running a governmetn with the philosophy that government has a legitimate role in economic policy other than getting out of the way.