Via Greg Mankiw comes this quote from Michael Kinsley
But people, even liberals, are starting to get unnerved by the cost of all this. We now talk of trillions the way, even a few months ago, we spoke of billions. In mid-June, the Senate health committee put out its version of reform and was horrified when the Congressional Budget Office figured that it would cost a trillion dollars over 10 years (over current spending) and would still leave millions uninsured. The committee retreated to its lair and re-emerged in early July with a revised plan “scored” by the CBO as costing only $600 billion and leaving only 3 percent of the population uninsured. Six hundred billion doesn’t sound like all that much to achieve, or come close to achieving, an important and long-standing goal such as universal health care. But keep in mind that health-care reform is supposed to save money. Its premise is that the current path is unaffordable. In that sense, a “mere” $600 billion extra is total defeat.
We have spent or will spend $787 billion on the stimulus, President Obama’s budget is a bloated monster, TARP is $700 billion, and now we are looking to add $600 billion for health care reform. I am reminded about what Rahm Emanuel said they would do, “Not let a good crisis go to waste” and it appears they are not letting the crisis go to waste and are using it to expand the size, scope and power of government.
