A few days after the stress-test results hit Wall Street last week, Fed chairman Ben Bernanke took to a podium in Jekyll Island, Georgia, to share his thoughts on the much-hyped exercise. The chairman went deep into the weeds on how 150 government examiners spent ten weeks scrubbing the balance sheets of the country's largest banks. He pronounced the findings firmly in the mainstream of independent studies, with copious citations to bolster his case. Then, when he was done, Bernanke tried to place the stress tests in a broader context.

If these facts surprise you, it's because you haven't been given a straight story about the Clinton health bill. Take two examples: on November 4, Leon Panetta, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, testified to senators that the bill does not "set prices" and "draw up rules for allocating care"; a month later Hillary Rodham Clinton assured a Boston audience that the government will not limit what you can pay your doctor. The text of the bill proves these statements are untrue.