Maybe I’m a bad liberal and a sellout, but I would greatly prefer it if my ideological fellow-travelers in the House and Senate would drop their futile crusade on behalf of the public option. At present, there doesn’t seem to be a single plausible scenario in which the public option becomes part of the current legislation. The situation for health care reform is still fairly precarious, and including a public option in the reconciliation bill is a surefire way of alienating nervous Democrats.
Besides, if one were included it would almost certainly be an incredibly watered down version. Better would be to pass the bill, and use the next few congresses to build support for and pass a strong public option via reconciliation as an addition to the new health care structure. Indeed, Rep. Alan Grayson has already introduced a bill that would open up Medicare to all citizens. This is the right tact to take; let’s build a structure first and mess with these details later.
I don’t know why they would. Educated people know that you statists will inevitably declare a new “crisis” and demand more government in response.
Like another 9/11? That sure helped grow government.