Weekend Editorial Roundup

Here are the highlights from this weekend’s editorials on fiscal and budget policy:

The New York Times criticized Republican healthcare reform proposals as not doing enough to fix the current system or to contain costs.  Proposals such as health savings accounts, high-risk pools, and allowing insurance to be purchased in any state, they argued, would either not drive down costs enough or would actually push up premiums for certain groups.

The Washington Post decried the apparent confusion between Congress and the White House over the passage of a jobs bill.  The Post also argued that either the President's jobs tax credit or the Schumer-Hatch payroll tax cut might not actually create new jobs but would rather speed up hiring that would have occurred anyways.

The Wall Street Journal disputed the Democrats' claim that using reconciliation to pass healthcare reform would not be unpredecented, arguing that the process would be unusual for social legislation of this size and scope.  They criticized the use of reconciliation as another corrupt tactic used to force the reform into law with a mere partisan majority. 

The Boston Globe argued that healthcare reform is too urgent to be stopped by partisan politics, using the rate hike by Anthem Blue Cross in California to demonstrate "why the status quo is not sustainable."  The Globe also called on Republicans to come up with an effective alternative to the current House and Senate bills that would address these cost increases.