Apathy is the enemy of progress. Thus the political apathy that affects far too many Americans, and specifically university students, is disconcerting. I agree with Rex Young ("Rock the vote 2010," April 13) that the issues affecting every one of us cannot be ignored. With that in mind, let me look at some of the things Young ignored. The Healthcare and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act (aka ObamaCare) that Rex touted does a number of things. Each of the 'positives' stated in 'Rock the Vote 2010' can be argued one way or the other. However, one thing mentioned that cannot be stated is that the bill saves the federal government money. This is an outright lie, and I will explain why. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) which put out the statistics on savings is non-partisan. It is an organization that projects economic ramifications based on the information given to it. In other words: garbage in, garbage out. So if you give the CBO ten years worth of tax savings, but only five years of program costs to number crunch, then abra kadabra: a costly program suddenly saves money. This is the case with ObamaCare. The CBO report on Health care is an exercise in lying with statistics and hides the true costs of the leviathan program. Indeed, there were numerous money saving counterproposals given to ObamaCare (buying insurance across state lines, promoting state reforms, and nationwide medical malpractice reform among others). With the national debt at $12.8 trillion and growing, we as young Americans cannot afford to ignore the hefty costs of a program revamping one-seventh of the economy. To put the costs of the U.S. debt in perspective, each citizen's share of the debt is $41,445 and growing as of April 13 at 3 p.m.
Remember to pile that debt from our parent's generation on top of your college loans. At some point the national debt will have to be paid. Given the importance of so many national issues, including fiscal responsibility, political apathy is not an option.
Joel Taubman\nSEAS I
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