This is the fundamental dilemma: we're unhappy about the rising cost
of health care, but we're also unhappy about what we would have to do
to curb it. The ideal system, for most voters, would guarantee all
seniors reasonable health care, stop the debt from getting out of
control, and keep paying health-care providers as before. The problem
is that you can only do two of those things at once. The debate
between Ryan and Obama is a debate over which of the three we're
willing to give up.
-- James Surowiecki, "The Financial Page: Bitter Pills"
New Yorker, (May 2, 2011).