Tuesday, February 24, 2009
The Chron's Fake Controversies.
Carolyn Lochhead:
A consensus could be developing around a proposal by Obama's erstwhile nominee for commerce secretary, Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., and Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., to apply something akin to a military-base-closing commission to trimming costs in controversial programs like Social Security.
Social Security is as controversial as apple pie. Lochhead wants to gut it, but most everyone else like it like it is, especially since making is solvent ad aeternam is pretty easy.
Also, she's misinformed:
Yet barring heroic gains in efficiency, restraining health costs means restricting access to expensive treatments. During his campaign, Obama talked only about expanding access. Any hint of the dreaded "R" word, rationing, would be sure to rile a hornets' nest of health care interests in Washington and those now getting gold-plated care.
First, who are those who get "gold-plated care?"
Second, an easy way to rule in the cost of healthcare is to make it universal. There's something like 30% of administrative overhead in the US system as it is, good for a point or so of GDP.
But for conservatives like Lochhead, it's the gold-plated care recipient (the Cadillac Welfare Queens of today!) who are the culprit.
A consensus could be developing around a proposal by Obama's erstwhile nominee for commerce secretary, Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., and Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., to apply something akin to a military-base-closing commission to trimming costs in controversial programs like Social Security.
Social Security is as controversial as apple pie. Lochhead wants to gut it, but most everyone else like it like it is, especially since making is solvent ad aeternam is pretty easy.
Also, she's misinformed:
Yet barring heroic gains in efficiency, restraining health costs means restricting access to expensive treatments. During his campaign, Obama talked only about expanding access. Any hint of the dreaded "R" word, rationing, would be sure to rile a hornets' nest of health care interests in Washington and those now getting gold-plated care.
First, who are those who get "gold-plated care?"
Second, an easy way to rule in the cost of healthcare is to make it universal. There's something like 30% of administrative overhead in the US system as it is, good for a point or so of GDP.
But for conservatives like Lochhead, it's the gold-plated care recipient (the Cadillac Welfare Queens of today!) who are the culprit.
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