Serious times, unserious fellow
Robert Samuelson describes President Obama’s “self-serving exaggerations and political fantasies” in the matter of health care:
The health care conundrum involves a contradiction that the administration steadfastly obscures: In the short run — meaning four to eight years — government cannot both insure the uninsured and rein in health spending. Here’s why. The notion that the uninsured get little or no care is a myth: They now receive about 50 to 70 percent as much health care as the insured. If they become insured, they would use more health care…That would increase both government and private health spending…
If you listen to President Obama, his “reform” will satisfy almost everyone. It will insure the uninsured, control runaway health spending, subdue future budget deficits, preserve choice for patients and improve quality of care. These claims are self-serving exaggerations and political fantasies. They have destroyed what should be a serious national discussion of health care.
This is rather barbed criticism, though Samuelson has been pretty consistently critical of Obama (eg, here and here) — comparing him, in essence to a P. T. Barnum-like character, who will say anything at all if he thinks it might fool the people for a time. It’s going to be a long three and a half years.