Reid Has Spinal Transplant
Monday, October 26, 2009
Today Senator Harry Reid (D-Wet Noodle) announced that he has come to his senses and will insert a so-called “public option” into the Senate health care bill when it comes to the floor.
It will contain the opt-out language, which will allow states to opt-out before 2014. I assume they can opt back in. It isn’t perfect, but my guess is, there will be nearly as many states that opt-out as those who refused stimulus funds.
Read at the Washington Post and Discuss.
6 comments:
Wow, Harry. Way to go way out on a limb. Your party essentially controls the entire government and polls show most people support a public option. About frickin' time.
It isn’t perfect, but my guess is, there will be nearly as many states that opt-out as those who refused stimulus funds.
Good for them. Hopefully, there will then be more funds for non-stupid states.
I kept waiting for Reid's office to issue a release today;
"Holy tapdancing shit, we didn't mean to hit 'reply all' to that last message. Please delete and don't forward. We obviously weren't serious about taking a firm position on something."
I need to do some readin'-up on the developments of the last few days, but I'll take the opt-out plan every day and twice on sunday over the stupid fucking trigger idea.
The opt-out states stand to look pretty fucking dumb a couple years later. And while I hate to sentence the unfortunate bystanders in Texas, SC, etc. if the residents in those states end up punishing their GOP governments for this, so much the better.
Read this comment over at Balloon-Juice:
"Ironically enough, if the opt-out does become the law of the land, you [Red-staters] and your neighbors will hold ultimate responsibility for crippling the Republican Party beyond recognition. Not necessarily a bad thing in and of itself, the way Republicans are acting these days. But it’s undeniably unfortunate for the red-staters who need the services their so-called representatives are denying them."
Maybe Harry Reid was saving all of his political capital for this moment, all along? Sure. I'll stick with that.
He backs it now, but I am worried he'll drop it for that horrid trigger idea.
The opt-out may politically be the best idea, for exactly the reasons Bob's quote from Balloon Juice points out, and what Mr. F says. That the same states who turned-down stimulus funds will be the same ones that opt-out of the public option. These will be the same states whose insurance companies will continue to under-cover and harm the populace.
But it’s undeniably unfortunate for the red-staters who need the services their so-called representatives are denying them.
That will be the saddest part. People will get sick and not have adequate insurance coverage, all because their "representatives" have a misguided beef against the public option. Mostly because they don't fucking get it and they don't want to. "We'll be less free if my citizens no longer ever have to worry if they get sick or injured." Fucking FUCK.
We had Michigan State's head of the Economics Department come speak to our Rotary Club yesterday. Great speech, covered a ton of topics, including how this recession is nowhere close to the Great Depression. But he also covered about 5 minutes on what "competition" means. In his opinion (and you Michigan folks will know that Charles Ballard is NO liberal...), it is *not* competition when an insular industry like insurance competes amongst itself in a market where prices continue to RISE and services continue to stay exactly the same. You need some sort of outside pressure to actually make it competitive. Right now, there is nowhere else to go for insurance. But a cheaper, broader, better-coverage option would actually finally make insurance companies competitive in the marketplace.
"...the same states who turned-down stimulus funds will be the same ones that opt-out of the public option.
Of which I think there was only 1.
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