I used to agree with that pdq, but from 2000 to 2008, the U.S. economy grew by $4.4 trillion; of that growth, roughly one out of every four dollars was spent on health care. Household expenditures on health care already exceed those on housing. That share is growing, and a Medicare funding crisis is coming. We're now at $2.4 trillion per year. We should spend what we have to spend, but not as wastefully as possible.

That's why I despise Congressional sausage manufacturing. They haven't even set a clear target as to who we are going to help and how. How in the world can they say the Medicad population stays on Medicaid, and the "public option" (safety net for the employed - as I see it) is non-essential, but with a $trillion underfunding over ten years in addition to the $2.4 trillion per year? ($1 trillion is only 4% of the total spending over ten years, but still . . . )

(That $2.4 trillion per year figure comes from the same Atlantic article. I'm sure there are widely varying estimates, but aren't we approaching twice the per capita spending of European nations? Pick your sources but I doubt you'll come up with something less than an amazing number.)