http://jacobinmag.com/blog/?p=792
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Of all the appalling tidbits that leaked out of the various closed-door debt-ceiling negotiations of the past few months, one of the most stunning items was the news <http://www.politico.com/politico44/perm/0711/obamas_medicare_offer_58a59ec3-7121-48bc-9972-f47bb48fe6ab.html>that Obama had proposed raising the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67. Not only did he propose it — he was really hoping it would happen. This provoked a collective wail of despair from a number of bloggers and commentators. Paul Krugman wrote a whole column<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/25/opinion/25krugman.html> about it.
Most of the responses to the news focused on how bad the policy is. But the more interesting question is why Obama wanted to push it in the first place. Yesterday, Ezra Klein had a post titled “Why the Obama administration is open to raising the Medicare age.”<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/why-the-obama-administration-is-open-to-raising-the-medicare-age/2011/07/11/gIQA7sTiaI_blog.html> There are few commentators as well informed on policy and as well connected and sympathetic to the Obama administration, so when Klein speaks on this topic, we should listen. [...]