Not impressive. My question:
I would agree with Donald's John Goodman's characterization of Ryan, Rivlin-Domenici, and Bowles-Simpson as just lines on a graph. (Donald says that he does not so characterize them: he is right. I pasted my notes on Goodman in the wrong place) But I am down the hall from Christy Romer, and I thought that the Affordable Care Act was different. The Independent Payment Authorization Board shows significant promise in reforming Medicare payments by pulling back some of the successful rent-seeking specialists have engaged in over the past generation during which our health care spending has diverged from the North Atlantic norm. The excise tax on Cadillac health plans is, over the next generation, a constructive repeal of a huge chunk of the tax preference for employer-sponsored insurance. You can dispute the wisdom of these policies. But I don't see how you can say they are just lines on a graph
