Reform Rx - Conservative Faction Fractions

Paul Krugman's NYT column took on three myths about health care reform today including the right wing panic attack concerning government takeover of "one-sixth" of our economy:

The first of these myths, which has been all over the airwaves lately, is the claim that President Obama is proposing a government takeover of one-sixth of the economy, the share of G.D.P. currently spent on health.

Well, if having the government regulate and subsidize health insurance is a "takeover," that takeover happened long ago. Medicare, Medicaid, and other government programs already pay for almost half of American health care, while private insurance pays for barely more than a third (the rest is mostly out-of-pocket expenses). And the great bulk of that private insurance is provided via employee plans, which are both subsidized with tax exemptions and tightly regulated.

That's how the conservative faction does fractions in seeking their lowest common denominator of sound bite attack.