The Senate version of the public option is BS.

[Oerdin]

While I am glad weak little Reid finally started playing hard ball and forcing blue dogs to at least agree to vote for cloture the truth is he still had to water down the public option so much it's probably to weak to do much good. Only a max of around 10% of the population will ever even be allowed to sign up for the public option and every state can refuse to even allow people the opportunity to buy into the public option all thanks to blue dogs who sold the public down the river. What the hell happened to "if you don't like your current insurance then you can buy not for profit insurance from the public option"? Why am I excluded? This is a bait and switch and I'm mad as hell about it! Reid tried everything he could not to include any public option and it was only the fact that 70%-80% of Americans wanted a public option and the fact that progressives wrote buckets of letters that forced him to even include this weak ineffective version of the public option.

Needless to say I'm deeply unsatisfied with the Democratic leadership in the Senate right now and I wish Reid could have been like Pelosi in really fighting for a strong public option. The House at least has a strong bill in place so maybe there is a bit of hope when it comes to reconciliation but that really is our only hope now if we want a strong medicare like public option which any American can opt to buy. Make no mistake about it; the Senate's version of a "public option" is one which virtually no one will get a chance to buy no matter how much they want to. In essence they're not going to give ANY OF US (unless you're in the bottom 10% who is chronically unemployed) a chance to opt into a public option. It won't even be an option listed on the health care exchange. That's completely unacceptable for Progressives.

Heck, even this weak sauce "public option" which virtually no one can buy will not come on line until 2013! That's over four years from now and long enough for Republicans to regain the majority and kill it, no doubt with the help of the blue dogs, before it even starts. It's time for us to sound off and tell these bastards that THIS ISN'T GOOD ENOUGH! We want a REAL public option, one which EVERYONE can buy into if they want, one with real strength to keep the damn insurance companies honest! This isn't real reform. Real reform means everyone can buy the public option if s/he wants to, even if you're in a red state. We need it now not in 2013 and definitely not "maybe in 2013 if they can't find a way to kill it before then". The Senate's version is complete weak sauce BS and that makes me mad as hell.

The Dems have 60 votes in the Senate so if a strong public option isn't passed then there is no one but the Democratic leadership to blame. Either deliver on real health care reform or resign because it's clear you're to weak to get things done.

[endless october]

1. it's past time to stop caring if the bill gets votes from both parties.

let the Repubs do everything they can to block it, record all of it, and play their obstruction in campaign commercials for the next 8 years.

the bill has been compromised too much to get a couple Republican votes. let them filibuster.

[Oerdin]

3. I agree 100%

Get real reform and stop blocking the strong public option just so you can say a single Republican voted for it. Republicans didn't care if no Democrat voted for their garbage; they just got their agenda passed. Democrats need to grow a pair and force things through. They need to get real reform done because 20,000 Americans are dying each month and those people can't afford to wait until 2013. 2013 if they're not in a red state and if they're not one of the 90% of Americans who will never have even the opportunity to buy a medicare like public option. That's weak sauce and that's unacceptable.

I'd rather there be no bill so then at least this topic will stay on the front burner and we'll have a chance to really reform things instead of just putzing around at the edges where the big insurance companies don't mind.

[damntexdem]

10. Both parties? The big deal is getting enough votes from Dems.

And if any Senate Dem helps the GOP filibuster, then it's well past head-breaking time. Punish the hell out of any such traitor.

[AllentownJake]

2. No bill has a real public option

A real public option would allow anyone to buy into it even if their employer was offering them insurance. A real public option would allow small businesses to buy into it for their employers

The people that will end up qualifying for the public option will be such a small group of people that we will have spent the past 6 months arguing over the most minor part of insurance reform.

Meanwhile every single American will be forced to buy insurance most from the private market.

[Oerdin]

4. That's what pisses me off most.

I don't mind being forced to buy medical insurance PROVIDED I get the option to buy into a nonprofit medicare like public option. At least then I have an option to do something besides get raped by big insurance companies but Reid doesn't even want me to have that option. He's shown time and again he'd have killed it long again if it wasn't for us progressives forcing him to be honest. With leadership like that who needs enemies? He needs to be replaced with a strong leader who gets things done instead of fighting us every step of the way.

Say what you will about Pelosi but she gets things done. Reid? Not so much.

[AllentownJake]

5. The Senate is a different animal than the House

Pelosi can pass something with 50% +1.

Do to the fillibuster (which is nowhere in the constitution) Reid has to get a supermajority on any legislation that is remotely controversial to get anything done.

The Filibuster should be ended. It is anti-democratic. Our society is based on majority rules. Pure and Simple.

[Oerdin]

6. Not true.

If Reid was a strong leader, like the Republicans always seem to have in the Senate, then he could strong arm even the blue dogs into at least voting for cloture. They could still vote up or down on the bill depending on how they feel but joining Republicans to filibuster the bill should be COMPLETELY unacceptable. Senators who do that should not receive a penny from the DNC and it should be made clear that no popular Democratic figures will come out to campaign for them. That's the very least we should accept from someone who has a "D" after their name.

If I had my way then I'd primary every single one of their asses. Put real progressives up against them and even if it means they lose in the general election then at least the remaining ones will have the fear of god in them. Then maybe they'll stop trying to sabotage their own party's signature issue.

[AllentownJake]

7. To me this has become Kabuki Theater

Forgive me, but everything is working out the way it was originally intended.
The Insurance Companies have 50 million new customers as do the drug companies, the private hospitals can cut down on their charity care, and progressives will be quiet because some sort of neutered version of what they wanted has passed no matter how miniscule it is.

I hope I'm wrong.

[Oerdin]

8. We need it before 2012.

We need it to start before 2012 too because with 20,000 Americans dying each month because they don't have health insurance the costs of inaction are too high. Not to mention Republicans are going to continue lying about death panels so what we really need is for people to actually see the public option first hand before the 2012 election. That way people will know there are no death panels and that the Republicans have lied to them. As an added bonus it would become a massive election issue because when the Republicans say "what have they accomplished?" we can point to the 40 million people who didn't have health insurance but now do and the countless millions who were under insured but now have excellent medicare like insurance from the public option. But the blue dogs have sabotaged even that and insisted it not even start until 2013 after the election because they want to have a maximum chance to let the Republicans kill it before it starts. This is BS.

[damntexdem]

9. True, but it may get a bill out of the Senate.

And hopefully a conference committee can get something better -- in fact, something better then the House version as well. We need a PO available to all.

[Oerdin]

11. That's really our only hope.

At this point reconciliation between the House and Senate bills is really our only hope. The Senate bill is complete and total horse crap while the House bill is much better but still not what Progressives wanted even though a medicare like public option was already a massive compromise compared to universal care which Progressives really wanted. The problem with relaying on reconciliation is that Reid has proven time and again he's weak and he prefers to side with big insurance over the best interests of the people. My guess is he'll continue his pattern of trying to sabotage the public option just as he's always done. Reconciliation requires the majority leaders of the House and Senate to craft a bill containing parts of both versions and without Reid's help nothing can happen. Can we really expect a man who has betrayed us so often to not betray us and fight this time? I hope I'm wrong but I don't think so. I think Reid will continue to be the corporate lackey he's always been.

I can only hope you are right though. Maybe if the bill, even a weak ineffective bill, gets out of the Senate then magically it can become a good bill during reconciliation. I don't have high hopes though.