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Healthcare: The Key To Economic Stimulus?

Fresh Air

Published January 13, 2009 at 3:40 PM EST

Macroeconomist Dean Baker sees opportunity in the current economic crisis. In a Nov. 17, 2008 editorial for The Guardian, Baker recommended that President-elect Barack Obama boost the economy by spending on national health insurance:

"The recession brought on by the collapse of the housing bubble has created a situation in which the main priority for the moment is spending money, not saving it," wrote Baker. "There is no better way for us to spend large amounts right now than getting our healthcare system in order."

The co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Baker is the author of Plunder and Blunder and The Conservative Nanny State.