Health Care and the Federal Budget

Jim Landers is a Washington correspondent for the Dallas Morning News. He also writes The World View column for the paper's business news section. Additionally, he's a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists. Marc Goldwein serves as policy director at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and as a senior policy analyst at the New America Foundation. Marc is also a senior consultant to The World Bank and a visiting scholar at the Institute for Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley.

The health care reform debate has been dominated by partisan charges and claims that are often completely contradictory. Both sides do agree that the recently passed legislation will have a significant and lasting impact on the federal budget, but that's where the agreement ends. Whether the bill helps or hurts in the very long term is difficult to determine, with much of media focusing on political bickering. So, where do you turn for solid information if you don't approach the situation as an ideologue? This week on dialogue host John Milewski speaks with Jim Landers of the Dallas Morning News and Marc Goldwein of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget for a new perspective on the issue.