The president's health reform hijinks

As we’ve noted time and again, the 45 million uninsured figure is a gross exaggeration, an over-inflation to suit a (pre-existing) political agenda. The real number of the uninsureds in America, not of their own choice, is closer to 13 million or 4 percent of the population. As has been suggested by many opposed to the president’s plan, take some of the unspent stimulus money and cover the 4 percent, rather than increasing costs and lowering quality for the other 96 percent (make no mistake, that is exactly what will happen). It’s not as if the money isn’t there. Examples of stimulus fraud, misappropriated funds and outright incompetence are all over the place. As The Wall Street Journal‘s James Taranto helpfully relates:

“About two-thirds of the 14,506 jobs claimed to be saved under one federal office actually weren’t saved at all, according to a review of the latest data by The Associated Press. Instead, that figure includes more than 9,300 existing employees who received pay raises and benefits and whose jobs weren’t saved.

“Officials defended the practice of counting raises as saved jobs.