The country seems fragmented as never before. And yet there are two things that everyone can seemingly agree upon: Something needs to be done about the parlous condition of the working class, and we need to get a handle on health-care costs.
Many a columnist has pointed out that neither party has a credible plan for actually addressing these problems, of course. Even in a year of surprising candidacies, there are no sound fresh ideas on these two fronts. All we have is solemn agreement that something ought to be done.
Allow me to suggest that the reason we have stalled out at the “something must be done” stage is that these two goals, seemingly as banal and uncontroversial as motherhood and apple pie, are in fact mutually exclusive. Each is a threat to the other.
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