Remember when the MSM pronouced a public option dead and no one expected it to be in the Senate bill

[ProSense]

Aide: Reid likely to include public option in Senate health care bill

A public option was considered virtually dead a few weeks ago, but Reid revived it last week by canvassing support for a plan that includes the public option while allowing states to opt out.

Obama, July:

The House bills and the Senate bills will not be identical. We know this. The politics are different, because the makeup of the Senate and the House are different and they operate on different rules. I am not interested in making the best the enemy of the good. There will be a conference committee where the House and Senate bills will be reconciled, and that will be a tough, lengthy and serious negotiation process.

I am less interested in making sure there's a litmus test of perfection on every committee than I am in going ahead and getting a bill off the floor of the House and off the floor of the Senate. Eighty percent of those two bills will overlap. There's going to be 20 percent that will be different in terms of how it will be funded, its approach to the public plan, its pay-or-play provisions. We shouldn't automatically assume that if any of the bills coming out of the committees don't meet our test, that there is a betrayal or failure. I think it's an honest process of trying to reconcile a lot of different interests in a very big bill.

Conference is where these differences will get ironed out. And that's where my bottom lines will remain: Does this bill cover all Americans? Does it drive down costs both in the public sector and the private sector over the long-term. Does it improve quality? Does it emphasize prevention and wellness? Does it have a serious package of insurance reforms so people aren't losing health care over a preexisting condition? Does it have a serious public option in place? Those are the kind of benchmarks I'll be using. But I'm not assuming either the House and Senate bills will match up perfectly with where I want to end up. But I am going to be insisting we get something done.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

1. Yes, and if all the people who were told to shut up had shut up we would still be there

What we are seeing today is the result of the left asserting itself.

The powers that be would have been happy to cruise through this process along lines of least resistance, but met some unexpected resistance from progressives in and outside congress.

[ProSense]

2. Contacting Congress helped.

Obama supported a public option, but pressuring Congress always helps.

[SPedigrees]

4. Absolutely. Pressure from constituents is a powerful force. nt

[AllentownJake]

3. Does anyone even know what a "Public Option" is

or whether the public option that will be in the bill is the public option they lobbied for or whether what they are going to call a public option is really a public option.

I'll wait to see the final bill out of the merged committee till I make my final judgement but to me Public Option has become as ambigous as All Naturual.

[Cirque du So-What]

5. What a waste

Consider all the phlegm and all the spittle and all the strained vocal cords on all the old, angry white people at all those town hall shouting matches meetings. All for naught. Toofuckingbad.

[RC]

6. This so called public option is nothing more than a distraction that will little or nothing

for any real health care reform in this country.

It seems that everyone has latched on to to the phrase "Public Option" as some kind of panacea. No, it's not. It is a detraction from real health care reform, namely Single Payer Universal health care.

Single Payer Universal health care has to be the goal, not some nebulous public option.

[Nikki Stone1]

7. It's a fig leaf covering an individual mandate

But without it, the mandates will cost more. They should just put on price controls.

[maglatinavi]

8. distraction

Now I am confused ... and I am no dummy ...I understand public option is to establish a medicare for all??? I meanm those who want it...as i have understood, people satisfied with their insurance keep it... I am 79 yrs. old have Medicare A& B, Medicare D and a medigap with the AARP insurance... so far I think it is the best so far ... for me ...
I have been helping advocate for public action in many ways, including rallys in the highways, at Congress man's office and meetings, etc. and now you say there is something wrong??? Gee Wheez!
:rofl: :patriot: :rofl: :patriot: :rofl: :patriot: :rofl: :patriot: :rofl: :patriot:
This is funny if it weren't so sad!!!:kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: