Will Obama Beat the Clock on Health Takeover?

Conn Carroll / July 14, 2009

President Barack Obama’s push for government-run health care has proceeded in three separate phases… and we’re just entering the last.

Phase One: Fantasy Football. The President’s push for health reform began in pure fantasy land. The Obama administration’s first budget was based on rosy economic assumptions that no independent, reputable economist believed at the time. Obama’s economic experts assumed the economy would only contract by 1.2% this year. As we pointed out at the time, the economy was already contracting at an annualized rate of over 5%. The Obama budget went on to assume GDP growth at a rate a full percentage higher than the Blue Chip consensus over the next four years. The Obama budget also claimed they could help pay for expanded government-run care by implementing the use of health information technology, care coordination, disease management, and “evidence based” medicine. As it has in the past, the Congressional Budget Office refused to entertain Obama’s fantasies and score these proposals as cost savings. That set up the next phase… (more…)