OK, Now I’m Less Bored With Health Care Summit


I couldn’t be bothered to watch the seven-plus-hour health care summit yesterday (given my new full-time job and all), but I still care about the subject.  Count on the blogosphere and the punditocracy to plow through all the raw material and offer up the best bits.

Hat tip to Peter Wehner at Commentary for flagging a strong performance by GOP Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. The six-minute clip above is worth watching — Ryan offers a fact-based, forceful-yet-respectful explanation of the impossible economics of Obamacare.

Don’t have six minutes?  Here’s a transcript of Ryan’s remarks, via the Washington Post‘s very helpful, comprehensive library of transcripts from every speaker.  And if you don’t want to bother with the transcript, here’s a sample (emphasis mine):

Look, we agree on the problem here. And the problem is health inflation is driving us off of a fiscal cliff.

Mr. President, you said health care reform is budget reform. You’re right. We agree with that. Medicare, right now, has a $38 trillion unfunded liability. That’s $38 trillion in empty promises to my parents’ generation, our generation, our kids’ generation. Medicaid’s growing at 21 percent each year. It’s suffocating states’ budgets. It’s adding trillions in obligations that we have no means to pay for it. …

And if you take a look at the CBO analysis, analysis from your chief actuary, I think it’s very revealing. This bill does not control costs. This bill does not reduce deficits. Instead, this bill adds a new health care entitlement at a time when we have no idea how to pay for the entitlements we already have.

The one-minute clip below is also nice — via Did I Miss Something.  The unlikely pair of Arianna Huffington and George Will reach an agreement, of sorts, on the best tactical approach for Democrats now.

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