Today we get more news that some Democrats are freaking out about the cost of health care reform. CBO has scored the Finance Committee's bill at $1.6 trillion over 10 years, and it will only cover 2/3 of the uninsured.

I have a simple question: Why are we looking at the 10-year cost rather than the annual cost? $160 billion a year is only a little over 5% of the FY 2008 budget per Wikipedia. Relatively speaking, it's peanuts. And why doesn't someone score what individuals are going to save as a result of the spending by the federal government? $160 billion out of a $14 trillion economy is no reason to get scared, especially when the net of government plus private costs will be even lower.

If any of you have to deal with right-wing friends complaining that the stimulus package hasn't worked and that we need tax cuts, print out the chart linked below.

Paul Krugman gives a nice chart of how the unemployment rate increased about 3.5 percentage points after Reagan's tax cuts in 1981, going up steadily for 16 months after the cuts were made.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/stimulus-history-lesson/