President Obama told a group of people at a health care rally yesterday about a Treasury study that: “found that nearly half of all Americans under 65 will lose their health coverage at some point over the next 10 years ... and that more than one-third will go without coverage for longer than one year.” Fortunately the NYT was there to set the record straight: "In fact, that is not precisely what the department found. ...... The survey found that 47.7 percent had lost coverage at some point during those 10 years for one month or more, and that 36 percent lacked coverage for at least one year during that time, though not necessarily 12 months consecutively. Mr. Obama extrapolated those statistics to predict what might happen in the future." There you have it. Joe Wilson was right. President Obama was making extrapolations about the future based on the past. Next thing he'll be telling us that black is white and night is day. This is why we need an independent media.
--Dean Baker
