"New CBO report" is not a phrase that generates a lot of click-throughs, but Ezra Klein makes the case that today's report on health care is extremely important (and that the CBO matters a lot more than you think):
Kennedy's office sent out a press release. The New York Times ran a story. The Wonk Room wrote up the findings. This is not how Congressional Budget Office reports are usually greeted. But the release of their two books on health care -- Key Issues in Analyzing Major Health Insurance Proposals and Budget Options, Volume I: Health Care -- is a big deal. Indeed, the books are unprecedented. But the coverage thus far isn't quite getting at their import.
To understand why these books matter, consider the first sentence of my profile of Peter Orszag, former head of the Congressional Budget Office and incoming director of the Office of Management and Budget. It's a quote from Senator Ron Wyden, one of Congress's most involved and aware reformers. "The history of health reform," he says, "is congressmen sending health legislation off to the Congressional Budget Office to die."
This is not part of the normal history. The CBO's rulings don't make much news. But they can be decisive.
To understand why, ask yourself this question: How do we decide howmuch a government program costs? It's an essential question. Programsneed prices, because the government has to produce a budget. Butpricing legislation in advance is impossible. Consider the challengesof a health-care plan that only exists on paper. What medicaltechnologies will emerge in coming years? Will there be a recessionthat forces more Americans onto government subsidies? Will the next fluseason be a bad one? No one knows.
But you still need a number. So Washington operates amidst a tacitly agreed-upon imprecision. What the CBO says, goes.
Read his post and then go take a look at his Orszag profile from the last print issue.
--The Editors
