netgarden’s posterous

David Brooks: Gail, the short answer to your question is that if I had 10 Republicans on the end of puppet strings, they would certainly be deeply engaged with the administration on passing health care. I would say, look at the people in the administration who are responsible for it — people like Peter Orszag, Larry Summers, Zeke and Rahm Emanuel, Obama himself. These are not flaming lefties. The president is completely committed to controlling costs, which you say you want. Why not be in the 10? I know they would say that this plan is too centralized, too much faith in Medicare advisory boards to control costs from the center. But I would say these are the sort of concessions you have to make when you lose elections.