Irrationally talking about rationing

David Leonhardt is quick becoming one of my favorite columnists.  Here, he nails the “rationing” red herring on its head.  It is abundantly clear to anyone who has spent 5 minutes thinking through the topic and reading a newspaper that the government is not even close to proposing to ration healthcare.  Moreover, economic activity is intrinsically rationing, so even private insurance plans ration health care, and they do it with a greater negative cost than a public plan would.  In other words, the health care complex is counting on the ignorance and apathy of Americans to allow it to preserve the status quo.