Quick, How Big a Deal Is $60 Billion Over Five Years?

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Don't know, are you stupid or something? The NYT is again obscuring its budget reporting by using numbers that are meaningless to almost all of its readers. It reported that the Senate Finance Committee voted to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program in a measure that will cost $60 billion over the next five years. This would have the same meaning for the vast majority of readers if the number were $6 billion or $600 billion, the vast majority of people (including the NYT's educated readers) have no idea of how much the federal government will spend over the next five years. I have never had a reporter claim that these numbers are meaningful to anyone other than a tiny group of budget wonks. Why can't they express the numbers in a way that is meaningful? The proposed spending is equal to about 0.4 percent of projected spending over this period. Alternatively, the government is projected to spend approximately $10,000 per person annually over the next five years, $40 of this moeny would go to this health care program. [NPR committed the same sin in its reporting. What's the problem with these people?]

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