"If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine."

Be careful SCOTUS. The Affordable Care Act is like Obi-wan Kenobi:

"If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine."

Why? Because if you can't devise a regulated, free market solution for a public good that comprises one-sixth of the American economy, the only available alternative becomes a Single-Payer "Medicare for All" plan.

Gail Collins of The New York Times agrees:

"It was basically a Republican idea to begin with, and look what happened. If this is thrown out in court, compromise will never get any traction again. Single payer! Single payer! Maybe you could have wooed me into the middle a few years ago, but no more. No more. Next time around we stop talking about complicated reforms and just go with Medicare for everybody."

Point-counterpoint that is actually fun to read

If you follow politics but have never read David Brooks' and Gail Collins' 'The Conversation' series in The New York Times, you have no idea what you're missing. Here's a couple of great nuggets from today's conversation:

Brooks: "...as one of the callers on Bill Bennett’s radio show pointed out, it’s an odd thing when a leading Republican candidate has the children of his first wife attacking his second wife for things she said about his third wife and this candidate is the one getting social conservative support."

Collins: "The South Carolina voters really just seemed to be looking for somebody who would expose Barack Obama as the socialist evildoer they believe him to be. Do you think they factored in the personality issue? Really, the president generally manages to come across as pretty likable, even when he’s announcing a new series of air strikes. And Newt can be pretty off-putting even when he’s explaining that he loves his grandchildren."

Trust me, you will not be disappointed reading it every week.