More poor calculations

As usual, Ezra Klein makes perfect sense on the health care debate ...

As any scientist will tell you, it's much easier to encourage something to evolve in a certain direction than it is to create it anew. The idea that a high-profile failure in a moment where a liberal Democrat occupies the White House and Democrats hold 60 seats in the Senate for the first time since the 1970s will encourage a more ambitious success later does not track with the history of this issue, nor with the political incentives that future actors are likely to face. If even Obama's modest effort proves too ambitious for the political system, the result is likely to be a retreat towards even more modest efforts in the future, as has happened in the past.

This is in response to the absolutely absurd opposition from single-payer supporter Marcia Angell. Listen, I'd enjoy a world where a single-payer system was the starting point of the debate for health care reform in America, but it's not. To think that defeating a fairly popular, albeit incremental health care reform package would increase the chances of something 'better' passing down the road is just nuts.

You lay a foundation, and then work from there. This bill provides that opportunity.