A Question of Philosophy?

Here is a post by Dean Baker on his Beat the Press blog that reveals what the press knows about "philosophy":

The Wall Street Journal Tells Us It's All About Philosophy

The news media keeps trying to tell us not to worry about who gets the money, the issue is one of philosophy. The WSJ picks up the task today telling readers that the difference between conservative and liberal budget plans:

"The big takeaway is this: The debate over how to reduce the deficit is truly a philosophical one about the size of government."

Is that so? The Congressional Budget Office tells us that it will cost $34 trillion (5 times the size of the projected Social Security shortfall) more to provide Medicare equivalent policies through private insurers than through the traditional government Medicare program. This would be additional money paid by taxpayers and beneficiaries to insurers and providers. Is the desire to hand this money over to these groups a question of philosophy?

Go read the original post to get the embedded links.

I should point out that the role of the media in a democracy is also a question of philosophy, but obviously these Wall Street Journal types have never bothered to study the issue. They know as much about philosophy as the average dog knows about higher mathematics. Zilch!