Marcy has a very astute observation on the Lieberman fiasco.
So here’s what Joe Lieberman claims the public option will do:
* Be costly to taxpayers
* Drive up premiums
* Involve cost-shifting to private plans
* Create an entitlement
* Increase the national debt
* Put more of a tax burden on taxpayers
As DDay points out, this is utter nonsense.
Lieberman’s justification on this is just nonsense – the public option would SAVE money for the government, to the tune of $100 billion dollars over 10 years according to the Congressional Budget Office. It also would cost nothing to the taxpayer, being financed by individual premiums.
But everything else Lieberman said is horse puckey. He is either completely ignorant about health care works (unlikely, for a Senator from Connecticut). Or, he’s lying his ass off as to his rationale.
Don’t you think the press ought to call him on that?
Of course the press ought to call him out on that, but that would require the press to understand the basics of the policies. They'd much rather talk about the personalities. They only pay attention to CBO scores when those scores create a fight, preferably between Dems, so that they can dust off the "Dems in Disarray" theme.
These news outlets won't spend the time or the energy to understand the very basics of policies. They certainly don't know or really even care that a robust pubic option makes fiscal sense for the economy, and good policy sense as well.
For what it's worth, Brian Beutler tried to push Lieberman on this. It didn't work.
This is at great odds with the findings of most experts, who say that, by bringing efficiencies into the greater insurance market, and therefore lowering the subsidy burden, a public option will actually save the government money.
I asked him to square his explanation with that of other experts, but he was undeterred. "Well all the history we have of health entitlement programs, including the two big ones that I dearly support, Medicare and Medicaid, is that they end up costing more than we're prepared to pay, and they add to the debt, and then they add to the burden on taxpayers."
As written, congressional health care legislation would require the public option--whether administered by a government, or by an outside body--would be financed by premiums, and unable to draw on federal funds.
Lieberman doesn't care, and knows that Politico and AP and WaPo and any number of outlets don't care, so he'll keep on lying.
