Universal health care shortfall a mere $90 billion per year

The experts at the round table — liberal and conservative — actually agreed to an impressive degree about the best way to fill the hole. They urged the senators to limit the tax deduction for employer-provided health insurance…

The idea seems to be classic Obama: empirical, pragmatic, bipartisan. Unfortunately, it happens to be an idea that John McCain campaigned on last year and that Mr. Obama, sensing a political opening, blasted as a tax increase. “Taxing health care instead of fixing it,” intoned the narrator in an Obama campaign advertisement, with ominous music playing in the background. “We can’t afford John McCain.”…

All of which means that filling the $90 billion hole is going to be very tricky.