Real Clear Politics | David Shribman

Here are some numbers that you need to remember as you watch President Barack Obama and Congress wrangle over a blizzard of figures at the heart of a proposed dramatic overhaul of the way Americans receive their health care: 372-33, 77-6, 307-116 and 70-24.

These numbers are vital to understanding the American political system, if not the American medical system, and anyone who overlooks them is forgetting an important quality of the way Americans have governed themselves and cared for themselves as they grow old and infirm.