Texas GOP Representative Pete Sessions (R-Math Challenged) Recently claimed on house floor that the cost of each enrollee was costing the U.S. treasury $5 million. He came up with that estimate by taking a $108 billion estimate cost and dividing by 12 million new enrollees.
The only problem with that? 108 billion divided by 12 million equals about 9,000. So he was only off by about $4,991,000.
From this morning's Dallas Morning News:
WASHINGTON — Dallas Rep. Pete Sessions claimed on the House floor today that Obamacare coverage costs federal taxpayers $5 million for each newly covered American.
He was off by a lot — nearly $5 million, in fact.
“If you just do simple multiplication, 12 million into $108 billion, we’re talking literally every single recipient would be costing this government more than $5 million per person for their insurance,” said Sessions, chairman of the House Rules Committee.
The actual math is this: $108 billion divided by 12 million equals $9,000.
Dallas Morning News
Pete Sessions is one of our local teabagger members, so I can understand how he may not be able to do basic math. But to be off by that much? As a Texas resident, I hope this is not a reflection of the quality of education in this state. Sadly, it just might be.