On May 19th, Congressional Budget Office Director Peter Orszag was on the Diane Rehm show. Several times that hour, Orszag talked about health care costs, and I had a few thoughts while listening:
- This guy is smart. I don’t know if my oldest brother agrees with him about health care policy, but there’s a frood who really knows where his towel is.
- So much for the reigning myth in education policy debates that health care decisions are based solidly on evidence.
- He’s probably right that “the deficit will bankrupt your grandchildren” is not a winning argument, politically.
- The tradeoff between health-care costs and social investments (in either infrastructure or education) are an interesting way to frame policy discussions. As with the point above, it probably is not a winning argument politically, but it’s definitely a “hmmmnnnn” point.
Oh, yes, and Orszag has a blog at CBO.