It's Mostly Old Folks Against Health Reform

Seniors, who don't want government messing with their government Medicare, are the largest group against reform. They're also the largest user of health care resources. Seem unfair and selfish of them to be crying socialism? A little. Nate Silver at Five Thirty Eight touches on the irony:

American Enterprise Institute scholar Andrew Biggs makes a powerful point when he calculates that "a typical person who was born in 1944, began work at age 21 in 1965, and in 2009 retired at age 65 and enrolled in Medicare," and who then draws the typical benefit until death at age 83, will have paid roughly $64,971 in Medicare payroll taxes during his/her lifetime but received around $173,886, for a net of "$108,915 more in benefits than he paid in taxes over his lifetime." Hey, that sounds like socialist-style redistribution to me! Read the whole post at 538

But do resources for the young have to be sacrificed for the health care of the old? Can everyone give and take a little so that more people can get coverage? Morning Joe addresses those questions:

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John McCain throws out an obnoxious woman at his town hall: