The New Health Dialogue

Salon

Fun "How the World Works" item in Salon on how the Twittersphere went berserk with CBO scores yesterday. Andrew Leonard writes:

You know you are living in a strange universe when the keyword "CBO" -- the abbreviation for Congressional Budget Office -- becomes so popular on Twitter that sleazy porn outfits like AdultFriendFinder incorporate the acronym into their tweet spam to drum up business. Call me squeamish, but I find it a little off-putting to have geeky arguments about the budgetary implications of new health care legislation interrupted by nonsense tweets attached to pictures of genitalia in compromising positions. It's yucky.

There were also hundreds of tweets and countertweets (or counterfactual tweets?) when House Republican Mike Pence asserted via Twitter that the CBO was wrong about Medicare costs ever since the beginning. The problem: there was no CBO when Medicare had its beginning (in 1965). Who knew that America would have so many comedians familiar with the CBO. (Example: @samseder CBO completely underestimated cost of Columbus journey to America.)

Leonard concluded on a more serious note: "The battle over health care reform has fully penetrated the consciousness of the United States, whether expressed out on the street or in the voting booth or via a Twitter riff. History is being made, and we know it."

(h/t to New America's own Paul Testa. No longer in the health policy program, but still looking out for us.)