Morning Must-Read: Charles Gaba: Dear Pete Sessions: “Bazillion” Is Not a Real Number Either

…If you just do simple multiplication, 12 million [insured individuals] into $108 billion, we are talking literally every single [Obamacare] recipient would be costing this government more than $5 million per person for their insurance. It’s staggering….$108 billion for 12 million people is immoral. It’s unconscionable. – Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Tex.), statement on the House floor, March 24, 2015….

For the record: Rep. Sessions is not a 3rd grader. He’s 60 years old. He attended (and presumably graduated from) Southwestern University. He was a marketing district manager for Southwestern Bell, and is now the Chair of the House Rules Committee of the United States House of Representatives…. Instead of ‘$108 billion’ Sessions meant ‘$95 billion’, and instead of ’12 million’ he meant ’23 million’.,,, The actual number Rep. Sessions should have used was ‘less than $5,000 per person’ as opposed to ‘more than $5 MILLION per person’ (off by a factor of 1,000x) or, if you believe his later ‘clarification’, ‘$60,000 per person’ (off by a factor of 12x)…. If the ACA really did cost ‘more than $5 million’ for every enrollee, that would be $60,000,000,000,000 ($60 Trillion), which I do admit would be a wee bit on the pricey side. On the other hand, I should thank Rep. Sessions for at least admitting that 12 million people have enrolled in private ACA exchange policies, since some of his Republican colleagues still seem to have a hard time believing that.