If he could win the debate against single payer's best defender, it might bring progressives on board for whatever bill the Democrats cobble together. The debate would also bring in a large viewing audience which would give Obama the chance to educate the American people on why we need the kind of reform he's advocating.
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/463782/don_t_let_the_white_house_spin_the_public_option_debateDon't Let the White House Spin the Public Option Debate posted by John Nichols on 08/18/2009 @ 11:16am
President Obama referred to the creation of a public program to compete with for-profit health insurers as a mere "sliver" of his reform agenda and then told a Colorado town hall meeting that: "The public option, whether we have it or we don't have it, is not the entirety of healthcare reform."
Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius said the public option is "not essential" to addressing what ails a broken healthcare system.
Those statements, obvious signals of a slackening in commitment to take on the insurance companies, caused an outcry.
The outrage was best summed up by Congressman Anthony Weiner, D-New York, who has emerged as a key backer of real reform.
"Having a plan that doesn't have a public option is worse than having doing nothing at all," said Weiner. "Leaving the insurance companies in charge of this is kind of like leaving a pyromaniac in charge of the fire department."
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