At Jan. 26 hearings on health care reform held by both the House Budget and Ways and Means Committees, the new Republican majority took the opportunity to question Obama Administration officials on the economic repercussions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
When Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) asked Austan Goolsbee, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, whether or not PPACA was a failure because organizations such as the Congressional Budget Office and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services predict health care spending will continue to rise, Goolsbee replied that it is not a failure because “the key thing” is lowering the health care cost inflation rate, which he contended PPACA does.
