"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."

Finally, an adult conversation on Medicare.

Too bad it's only hypothetical. That's a shame.

Time to synergize

I blogged yesterday about Steven Pearlstein's column on the inability of the two parties to come together to offer constructive, synergistic solutions on a range of issues facing the country.

The Economist opines about how Kathy Hochul's victory in upstate New York will only just exacerbate the problem, comparing solutions to Medicare's finances to a used car dealer selling a lemon. Dana Milbank of The Washington Post goes further by explaining how Paul Ryan was a victim of his own scare tactics, which illustrates the problem but doesn't help solve it.

Lastly, Matt Miller writes a column about acknowledging that the entire RyanCare plan is not a disaster and it does have some good ideas to build around.

Getting back to the Economist piece, a very good point is made that represents a very sad reality:

"Both parties have, somewhere inside them, a serious proposal to reform Medicare. If they thought they could be elected by offering such a plan, they would do so."

What both parties miss in all of this is they've inadvertently synergized already. The "Premium Support" (aka Vouchers) in RyanCare were a Democratic idea. The individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act were a Republican idea. And the fact that each is being ripped apart after being embraced by the other side is the saddest part of all.

Incredibly bold or incredibly stupid...

So let me get this straight: Making false claims like "pulling the plug on grandma" are good. Making valid claims like "turning Medicare into a voucher program" are bad. Can someone please explain to me where this kind of logic comes from?