Wary of the Health Care boondoggle

Here's my latest letter to the editor, sent to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, St. Paul Pioneer Press, Finance and Commerce, Minnesota Daily, USA Today, and The Washington Post:

Don't be fooled by the unrealistic gimmicks in the Senate heath care plan, such as a "Medicare Commission" or a "Failsafe Budgeting Mechanism." This is nothing more than the absurdity of some empty commitment to being fiscally responsible at some point in the future while spending billions or trillions of taxpayer dollars today.
 

The federal government has never been able to accurately predict health care spending. In 1967 the estimate for Medicare spending in 1990 was $12 billion. The ACTUAL spending in 1990 was $110 billion (off by a factor of 9 times). Similarly, Medicaids DSH (disproportionate share hospital) program had a $1 billion estimate in 1987 for spending in 1992 (just 5 years hence). The actual spending for DSH in 1992 was $17 billion (17 times more than estimated).

What makes us believe that this Congress -- already demonstrated to be profligate spenders -- can estimate any more accurately just because they're starting with $900 billion to $1.2 trillion as their estimates?

Stop them!

Now, it's your turn to write to them -- and to your Senators and Representatives.  Do it now!