Last night on “Real Time with Bill Maher,” the New York Times’s Paul Krugman offered up this clever analogy on the federal bailout:

There are no atheists in fox holes and there are no libertarians in financial crises.

The line got some laughs, but I was struck by a violent sense of déjà vu. It turns out: the reason it seemed as if I had heard that before is because I had. On Tuesday, I attended a debate on universal healthcare. Arguing for the motion, “Universal health coverage should be the federal government’s responsibility,” was Dr. Art Kellermann,  Dr. Michael Rachlis, and–you guessed it–Paul Krugman. At one point Dr. Kellermann offered up this clever analogy on universal healthcare:

Have you all heard the expression that there are no atheists in fox holes?  I can tell you, in my experience, there are no libertarians in intensive care units.

I believe economists like Krugman call this borrowing in the short-term.