Tyler Cowen thinks it's time to admit the obvious: If our fiscal situation seems even more dire than it did before, then surely we should scale back our plans for reforming health care. Ezra Klein doesn't think that's obvious at all.
Speaking in my official capacity as a health reformer, the correct claim, I think, is that "the fiscal outlook is grimmer than before, therefore we should agree on more radical health reforms than were previously considered."
The key, of course, is making sure health reform actually makes progress towards controlling costs. Cowen, I gather, is skeptical. I'm not. Or, at least, I'm not as skeptical as Cowen is. But more on that later.