Our elected officials get one of the best healthcare plans in the nation, and they get it for life. Many of them have been on this plan for decades, so on this issue they simply share no experiential common ground with the majority of Americans. Add to this the amounts of money those opposed to a single-payer option have spread around Washington, and it’s a wonder that anyone there can even mention the idea without smirking.

Health insurance is the milk carton of our generation: when asked the cost of a gallon of milk in 1992, the first President Bush couldn’t even hazard a guess. I suspect the same is true of many of our current elected officials in regard to health insurance – be they Republican OR Democrat.