Via Ezra Klein, the Republican argument against Democrats passing health care reform.

Paul Krugman has a good column on the lies people have come to believe about HCR. The biggest lie is that HCR would be too expensive, when in fact it would save money, especially compared to doing nothing at all.

Example, from Krugman:

The second myth is that the proposed reform does nothing to control costs. To support this claim, critics point to reports by the Medicare actuary, who predicts that total national health spending would be slightly higher in 2019 with reform than without it.

Even if this prediction were correct, it points to a pretty good bargain. The actuary’s assessment of the Senate bill, for example, finds that it would raise total health care spending by less than 1 percent, while extending coverage to 34 million Americans who would otherwise be uninsured. That’s a large expansion in coverage at an essentially trivial cost.

Kevin Drum: “Yes, the Health Care Bill Really Does Pay for Itself.”

Anything else worth reading today?