I love a good provocative title as much as the next writer but it has to at least make some sense, which really doesn’t seem to be the case with Ezra Klein’s new article ‘Ryan May Lead to Single-Payer Health Care.’ As best as I can make sense of the rather strange logic leaps, Klein has basically made yet another total 180 reversal in his previous thinking. He is now arguing that Ryan’s plan, if enacted, would be so bad that at some point in the future it would magically make Democrats adopt single payer.

Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson writes in the WSJ that liberals can’t wait to impose Medicaid on everyone. Apparently he missed the part where many liberals supported “Medicare for all,” but hey, it’s the Wall Street Journal and they’ll print anything from a GOPer.

Paul Ryan’s budget was released this morning. He kicked it off with another pretentious video preview and a somewhat less pretentious and more standard op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. Ryan’s budget resolution is similar to last year’s version, which passed the House and went nowhere in the Senate.

Republican innumeracy basically explains half of their policy prescriptions, but as these things go, this is a pretty good one.

The short story is this. The 2010 Affordable Care Act carried a price tag of $940 billion over ten years. This was mainly accomplished by delaying the implementation until 2014 to keep the 10-year budget window costs artificially low. Given how public opinion has lagged on the law, I’m guessing some Democrats would want that decision back.

Everyone was amused throughout the Internets by Mitt Romney holding a speech for 1,200 people inside Ford Field in Detroit, leading to images of a cavernous, empty stadium. And it’s completely puzzling WHY Romney’s advance team would site a speech like this in a big, empty stadium, just waiting for the snickering comments. Heck, for a shockingly small price, Romney’s team could have bought the Pontiac Silverdome and just painted faces on all the seats and piped in some crowd noise.

Mitt Romney has been quoted, out of context he claims, that he’s not concerned about the poor, only because the safety net takes care of them. But what he really means is he plans to block-grant Medicaid, which will drastically reduce spending their health care, cuts to the budget that includes housing vouchers and food stamps, and cuts to the federal workforce administering those programs. He literally means, “not concerned.”

During Thursday night’s GOP debate, a woman from Florida told the candidates she’d lost her job and with it her health insurance. What would each of the candidates do to get her covered or otherwise provide the health care she needed?

You had to listen carefully, but the effective answer they all gave her was, “this is your problem, not ours.”

This week’s holiday mandates giving thanks. For many Americans, that is complicated by the harsh years since 2008.

There’s the bitterness of lost jobs, foreclosed homes and diminished opportunity. There’s the resentment over bailing out Wall Street, then watching banksters grant themselves sensational bonuses while denying Main Street loans to save businesses. There’s the fear generated by county club conservatives demanding draconian cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

It’s hard to muster gratitude while suffering, to feel appreciative while dreading a meaner future.

The Democrats on the Super Committee, in their efforts to reach an deal with Republicans, have offered a new deficit reduction package and just like their last offer this one also contains cuts to Medicare benefits.

Democrats are planning to attach a veteran’s hiring preference, one of the original remaining pieces of the Obama Jobs Bill, to a House-passed bill that repeals a law requiring 3 percent withholding from federal contractors. These people aren’t serious.