Washington Post reporter Dan Balz worries about the message that the Senate's failure to pass immigration reform will send to the country. He is concerned they will ask if Washington can't solve the problem of immigration, "what hope is there for progress on health care, energy independence, or the financial challenges facing Medicare and Social Security?" I read this piece and worried about how many more people the Post has managed to convince that the problems of rising health care costs are actually problems with Medicare and Social Security. As Congressional Budget Office Director Peter Orszag has managed to demonstrate with a simple chart, the long-term budget problems that are so widely advertised in the Washington Post and elsewhere are the result of a projected explosion in health care costs. If we fix our health care system, there is no real long-term budget problem, and the financial challenges facing Social Security and Medicare would be relatively minor. A reporter who was really concerned about leadership would make an effort to convey this information to his readers.
--Dean Baker
