Mike Lux on the healthcare fight:

This is the biggest issue for Barack Obama, and his ability to get anything else significant done will die if health care dies.

Er, no. Obama already faced his biggest issue - is this country a democracy or an oligarchy?* And on that one, he already made his decision - trillions of dollars for Wall Street, a pittance for the rest of America. Why do you think the costs of healthcare are such an issue? Because dude already spent all of our money on Wall Street.

From Mark Thoma, writing about Robert Reich's piece Are We Courting A Populist Backlash?: [my emphasis]

There are lots of reasons, but if we had better social insurance, good enough so that the health and welfare of workers and their families was not threatened by the failure of the automakers, it would be a lot easier to avoid a bailout.