Associated Press Continues To Insist Dem Health Care Bill Costs $1.5 Trillion

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Yesterday, we noticed something strange about the Associated Press‘ coverage of the House’s health care bill unveiling. A preliminary Congressional Budget Office analysis pegged the price of that legislation at about $1 trillion, and by and large, that’s how reporters characterized the cost of the bill. But not the AP, which, relying seemingly on the good faith of an anonymous Democratic aide, said the bill would actually cost $1.5 trillion. Soon, Newt Gingrich picked up that ball and ran with it, and Democratic health care leaders and their aides were fuming.

But that hasn’t stopped AP, which is at it again. “Votes were planned Thursday in the Education and Labor and Ways and Means committees on a $1.5 trillion plan that majority House Democrats presented this week,” reports Erica Werner. As I reported Tuesday, the first part of that sentence is true. The second part, however, is not.

So what’s going on over at Ron Fournier’s shop?

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