I understand that people are concerned about the potential costs of health care reform, but it’s immensely frustrating how Senate Finance chair Max Baucus and other prominent figures in Washington have become fixated on the idea that the reform bill shouldn’t cost more than $1 trillion. I haven’t heard a principled reason why that number is the right one — it’s just an arbitrary threshold. If we used the Euro as our currency, no one would be saying “Health care can cost 721.084511 billion Euros* and not a penny more.” And yet the $1 trillion number is seriously constraining the debate over the substantive provisions of the bill.

(* According to Google’s currency converter this morning.)