I called it.

[Shagbark Hickory]

A month or so ago I posted here where I predicted there wouldn't be a public option but instead a private non-profit option. (and even a trigger on top of that)

At the time I predicted this, I wholeheartedly believed my premonitions but couldn't begin to imagine how the plans would so rapidly change from promising a public option to a non-profit option.

This g.e.i.c.o. of sorts is a total piece of shit but man is this brilliant work or what? These politicians are really good at screwing their constituents to further their own causes. I'm really fed up with the corruption in Washington.

[gateley]

1. Yeah, there's corruption, but I view this more as our Party continually giving

in and rolling over. There are a few who are really fighting for us, but on the whole, they seem to be more interested in just getting SOMEthing passed, rather than any real overhaul/change.

As someone said, we don't want insurance reform (which is what they're doing) we want HEALTH CARE! :grr:

[Echo In Light]

7. The buckling and caving in is by design. Collusion, not "cowardice."

[endless october]

2. scrap it if there's no public option.

i don't buy the "let's just pass something and then we'll make it better later" argument.

will the insurance lobby behave differently the next time we try to compete its ridiculous prices down? no.

do it now. there is no further compromising. the public option IS the compromise for ruling out single payer from the get go.

if the public option is now off the table, i say go for broke with single payer. and keep introducing it until it eventually passes.

[Cleita]

3. Many of us started predicting that when they swept single payer off the table

from the beginning. We warned that there also would be no public option either. It was just bait so they could continue letting the health care lobbyists write the bill. I remember some really rude posts made to me because I warned about this way back in June and July. I told those DUers that they would be sorry. So here we are. I hope there is a save somewhere before the final bill is signed into law.

[Shagbark Hickory]

4. Yeah. That was the worst part of all. Getting our hopes up. But Candidate Obama did promise Unversal

... universal healthcare. You might remember the debate with Hillary Clinton and John Edwards (his last debate). That was as least instance where he promised universal healthcare or if it wasn't promised, it was worded in such a fashion to lead the public he was promising it.

Although I am in favor of a totally government operated healthcare system, I never really cared that much if we had a single payer system so long as we had a public option that anyone could join if they wanted. I believe the free market would sort things out. Even though I don't trust the private insurance companies and don't have insurance myself, I don't see the big deal with having some competition. The one with the best offerings and value is going to win. In other words, the private companies wouldn't last too long with a public option.

[Cleita]

5. I didn't hear it from either Hillary or Obama. It wasn't, to me, framed as

universal health care. John Edwards and Dennis Kucinich did speak in those terms so I was disappointed, but then Obama did speak of a strong public option, but that seems to have been deleted from his conversation on the matter as of today. The minute they started framing this issue as affordable health care instead of access to health care, then I knew the health insurance cartel and big PhRMA were in charge, not we the people, whom the President and Congress is supposed to represent.

[Shagbark Hickory]

6. There was a memorable line when John Edwards said towards the end of the debate....

I'm paraphrasing... "The only other truly universal healthcare plan up here is (Hillary Clinton's)"

That's why it was so surprising that when he dropped out of the race the next day then later came out for Obama.