If only it were that cheap. ABC is now picking up on the claim that the House Democrats’ health care reform bill will cost a made-up number.
A couple things stand out here. First, the ABC reporters who wrote the piece–Jonathan Karl, Z. Byron Wolf, and Huma Khan–seem to be basing their article a couple Associated Press pieces which peg the legislation at $1.5 trillion…based on the contention of one anonymous Democratic aide. For whatever reason, the AP isn’t relying in this instance on the Congressional Budget Office–or other, on the record House Democrats–which prices the bill at about $1 trillion. That’s without taking into account revenue-generating measures.
Second, they’re using the word “billion” instead of “trillion”–a three-order-of-magnitude difference notwithstanding all the problems with the number “1.5”.
That now makes two news organizations–Time, and ABC–along with Newt Gingrich who have taken this AP number and run with it. How far will it go?
