Wanted: Economist to Trash Health Bill

Pro-business groups opposed to the president's health care reform are raising funds to hire a "respected economist" to study the impact of the reform—and find that it is a threat to jobs and the economy. In an email obtained by the Washington Post, a top official at the Chamber of Commerce writes: "The economist will then circulate a sign-on letter to hundreds of other economists saying that the bill will kill jobs and hurt the economy.

"We will then be able to use this open letter to produce advertisements, and as a powerful lobbying and grass-roots document," he adds. The email, proposes spending $50,000 for the study, also says the idea was "suggested by our Congressional allies"—a sign of intensifying attacks by opponents as Dem health reform plans move into the Senate.