Ezra Klein posts today about what health care wonks seldom talk about - how all the grand blueprints for overhauling U.S. healthcare don't mean much if they can't gather 60 votes in the U.S. Senate. But if you've been following our work at New America, you know that "60 votes" could be our middle name. Health reform requires bipartisan compromise. (Klein is only joking when he says that his secret health reform plan is to invade France and take their health care. Although the scenario does have some pretty amusing possibilities for bipartisanship on the beaches of Normandy...).

Musing about his imminent appearance at "Take Back America," Klein writes, "What you never hear about are votes. Political strategy. Getting to 60. Because that, fundamentally, is what's at issue here. Getting to 60 in the Senate. Health care is not so much a policy problem as it is a political problem. The policy questions are nearly solved. The political obstacles, however, seem nigh insurmountable. But if you have a plan without a strategy, you have nothing at all. If you can't tell me how you'll get to 60 in the Senate, what you have isn't a plan, it's a position. And no one in this country gets medical care from a position."

The 47 million people who lack insurance need more than positions. They need access to quality, affordable medical care. So 60 votes, here we come.