"Medicare naturally makes for strange bedfellows," Jacob Hacker, a political science professor a the University of California-Berkeley and the author of The Great Risk Shift: The New Economic Insecurity and the Decline of the American Dream wrote in an email. "Both conservatives and liberals have an interest in keeping the program's costs in line. The divisions are much deeper when it comes to expanding the role of government in health care -- and the political fight will be that much fiercer..."

..."Democrats should take away from the Medicare fight two big lessons," Hacker said. "They need to stick to their guns on the important principles, and they need to pressure moderate Republicans to break with the more conservative members of their party." LINK