{"id":193,"date":"2009-10-26T16:35:39","date_gmt":"2009-10-26T23:35:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/?p=193"},"modified":"2009-12-23T11:29:55","modified_gmt":"2009-12-23T18:29:55","slug":"%e2%80%9caffordability%e2%80%9d-2010-and-the-health-overhaul-hughhewitt-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/2009\/10\/26\/%e2%80%9caffordability%e2%80%9d-2010-and-the-health-overhaul-hughhewitt-com\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cAffordability\u201d, 2010 and the Health Overhaul | HughHewitt.com | 10.26.09"},"content":{"rendered":"

This morning\u2019s Politico<\/em> (here: http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/yf8pchm<\/span><\/a> ) headlines \u201cPublic Option resurfaces as an affordability issue\u201d. \u00a0In the paper version, a bigger headline to the same story explains, \u201c2010 Haunts Health Care Debate\u201d.<\/p>\n

You may be inclined to say, \u201cduh.\u201d \u00a0But though, as Politico<\/em> also reports, Mr. Obama\u2019s demand for a $900 billion cap on the planned program\u2019s expenses came as a surprise to many Congressional Democrats, the White House move was a predictable response to intense public concern about health overhaul\u2019s price tag.<\/p>\n

Yet, to most Americans, $900 billion still looks like a big deal. \u00a0\u00a0And it is, now and even more profoundly in the decades ahead.<\/p>\n

In a stop last week at the Hoover Institution on the Stanford University campus in Northern California, I received a chart on Federal government budget outlays from 1795 to 2065. \u00a0It came from Hoover economist John Cogan, once President Reagan\u2019s deputy director of the Office of Management and the budget. \u00a0Using 2005 data, it tracks government spending as a percent of GDP.<\/p>\n

Here are the key points and why the \u201cyears ahead\u201d loom so large in the health care debate:<\/p>\n