There is growing bipartisan agreement that the optional expansion of Medicaid provided by the Affordable Care Act is too good an opportunity to pass up.

As the largest caucus of Democrats on Capitol Hill, the Progressive Caucus has heavyweight size but flyweight punch.

Idaho will not expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act at this time. In his state of the state address Governor C. L. “Butch” Otter said that he will not seek an expansion this year.

The Supreme Court’s decision to make the Medicaid expansion optional may have indirectly protected the program from cuts during the current fiscal cliff negotiations.

Last year the Obama administration supported the idea of reducing federal Medicaid spending by using a “blended rates” formula, but now the idea is off the table. The HHS firmly came out against the idea Monday in a Frequently Asked Question document about the Affordable Care Act.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that states will not be eligible for funding for the Medicaid expansion unless they expand it all the way to 133% of poverty as envisioned by the law.

Math is hard, but basically, by cutting $73 million to Planned Parenthood, Texas will now have to spend an additional $200 million underwriting the cost of caring for almost 24,000 unplanned babies. And then there’s the cost of medications for sexually transmitted diseases–Texas has the highest rate of uninsured Americans in the United States (and a woefully weak Medicaid system facing a shortfall), so really what will happen then? Will Texas celebrate the arrival The Great Satan in the form of Obamacare?

So my old college pal Jon Chait has responded to my criticism of his endorsement of raising the Medicare eligibility age, America’s worst new idea. I’ll get to batting that around in a moment.

As the kerfuffle was happening, however, this has become less of an academic argument. Ezra Klein writes that raising the Medicare eligibility age could become the centerpiece of a deal, based on what “smart folks in Washington” say.

Firedoglake’s pledge drive to strengthen – not cut – Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits has grown to over 70,000 activists. By mobilizing to make phone calls, office visits, run ads, write letters and more, our activists have played an important role in preventing benefit cuts from taking place over the past 4 years.

We’re reviving our pledge drive for the latest showdown, vowing to withhold support from any politician who participates in cutting Social Security, Medicare and/or Medicaid benefits.

It’s time to ask our elected officials: Which side are you on?

All of this will happen during 2014, a midterm election year, where Democrats will struggle to hold the Senate, while trying a heavy lift of adding 17 seats in the House. What if the dominant story becomes the failures of Obamacare? Certainly that narrative is already being written in some circles? The ACA already indirectly led to one nightmare election for Democrats, in 2010. Could it lead to another?

Courtesy Think Progress, here’s a pretty good chart detailing the health program savings that were included in the White House’s opening bid on the fiscal slope. You can get this information from the White House’s FY2013 budget request.