It's tempting to read these pieces by Matt Yglesias and Jonathan Chait and decide that, all things considered, liberals should at least consider raising the Medicare age to 67 as part of a budget compromise.
They shouldn't. "This seems like a useful time for liberals to sort out the difference between budget ideas we don't like and budget ideas we can't or shouldn't accept," Chait writes. I couldn't agree more. Put this one in the "can't accept" column. Here are four arguments for compromising on the Medicare age -- and why they're wrong. Bad Reason #1: As a bone to throw to the right. "When the question comes to what concessions the Democrats are going to have to accept," Chait writes, " " raising the Medicare age seems like a sensible bone to throw the right." That's the first bad reason to compromise. Raising the Medicare age would increase the number of uninsured Americans... |