Krugman on Single Payer and the Art of the Possible

Let's start with the curious fact that the RNC was defending Bernie Sanders from Hillary's attacks last night.

"RNC Defends Bernie During the Debate...and No One Should Wonder Why."

"RNC is sending out a fact check defending Bernie Sanders from HRC's attacks on single payer health care. This feels weird."

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/1/17/1471240/-RNC-Defends-Bernie-During-the-Debate-and-No-One-Should-Wonder-Why
It is very weird when you consider how relentless their scorched earth opposition to the ACA has been. Bernie's supporters claim that HRC's criticism of his plan is a Republican criticism. Then how do you explain Republicans defending him against her criticism?

That's because, contrary to how Bernie and friends try to spin this, the debate is not an abstract debate over single payer. Hillary is in principled agreement to the goal of universal healthcare as President Obama is. Recall what Obama said in 2009:

"This is the position Barack Obama took when he was advocating for passage of the Affordable Care Act. “If I were starting a system from scratch, then I think that the idea of moving towards a single-payer system could very well make sense,” he would say in 2009 when asked by liberals about it. “The only problem is that we’re not starting from scratch.” He was talking about the disruption to the health care system it would cause, but there was also a political reality at work, namely that the chances of successfully getting a single-payer plan through Congress were essentially zero (just look at what it took to get a market-based plan like the ACA through, and it made it by the skin of its teeth)."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/01/12/heres-the-real-deal-on-the-latest-big-clinton-sanders-dust-up/

"Right, this is called the time path dependent nature of policy. What might have made sense at Year zero might increasingly make less sense later."

"In principle, Krugman is for single payer. But that's before you factor in politics."

"Health Reform Is Hard."

"My column and Bernie Sanders’ plan crossed in the mail. But the Sanders plan in a way reinforces my point that calls for single-payer in America at this point are basically a distraction. Again, I say this as someone who favors single-payer — but it’s just not going to happen anytime soon."

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/01/18/health-reform-is-hard/?module=BlogPost-Title&version=Blog%20Main&contentCollection=Opinion&action=Click&pgtype=Blogs&region=Body

Hm. Two interesting things about Sander's talk of single payer:

1. It's basically a distraction.

2. The GOP that wants to destroy ACA 'root and branch' is defending single payer.

Could these two facts be related?