Yes, It's the Washington Post Once Again...
Dean Baker spoils my day by telling me to go read David Broder.
David Broder is physically incapable of ever telling it straight:
Governors Call On Congress to Widen Insurance for Poor - washingtonpost.com: Bush has made the State Children's Health Insurance Program, known as SCHIP, the center of his campaign against "excessive" domestic spending. His budget allocates only $5 billion in additional money for the program in the next five years -- a sum that supporters of the program say is too small to cover even the 6.6 million children who are currently receiving help...
As Dean points out, it's not just "supporters": it's also the Congressional Budget Office--the high priests of nonpartisan reality-based budgeting, in this case Noelia Duchovny, Lyle Nelson, and Carol Frost. This isn't the "he said, she said" issue that David Broder makes it out to be:
P. 14: By CBO’s estimates, maintaining the states’ current programs under SCHIP would require funding of $39 billion for the 2007–2012 period and $98 billion over the 2007–2017 period—-increases of $14 billion and $48 billion, respectively, over the baseline spending levels. Those estimates account for projected increases in health spending per enrollee and the number of enrollees but assume no changes in the design and operation of the states’ programs-—for example, no changes in eligibility rules, benefit packages, or outreach activities...
Why oh why can't we have a better press corps?
