What’s a person supposed to think about the public option? Is it on the table? Is it off the table? The Senate says they don’t have the votes to pass a bill with a public option. The House says no bill will pass without a public option. The White House said they would consider taking the public option off the table. Then they said they won’t.
Are they purposely trying to confuse people, or are they confused? There is more talk about co-ops as an “alternative” to a public option. Are they just blowing smoke in our eyes? Probably.
Americans under age 65 is neither a surprise nor a comfort, because it does nothing to change the administration’s dangerous plan for health reform. Rather, it is a tactic designed to change the debate – one that fits nicely within the administration’s broader strategy of deception.
On Sunday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said that a new government program modeled on Medicare is “not the essential element” of reform, and that the president is open to a government-chartered “co-operative.”
It was inevitable that the administration would back away from a new Medicare-like program, the demands of left-wing House Democrats notwithstanding. For weeks, Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) has been telling the world that such a program would never pass the Senate: “There are not the votes in the Senate for the ‘public option,’” Conrad recently told Fox News Sunday. “There never have been.” The only question was when the president would distance himself from the idea.
President Obama chose this moment because he is losing the debate on health reform, and he needs to change the subject. The administration no doubt hopes that the conversation will be about how the president has moderated his approach to health reform.
One problem: this offer doesn’t make the president’s health plan any more moderate. It is an empty gesture, because the administration can now push for Sen. Conrad’s “co-op” proposal as a substitute. And a government-chartered health care “co-operative” is simply another government health program.
The definition of a cooperative is a health plan governed by its enrollees. Since a government chartered co-op won’t have any enrollees at first, it will be governed by—guess who?—the Secretary of Health and Human Services, just like any other government program. Read the rest at Townhall
Like I wrote yesterday, the democrats aren’t about to bow out of this fight gracefully. They only want us to think they have.
[...] about Barack Obama as of August 17, 2009 A Public Option by Any Other Name is Still a Public Option – lonelyconservative.com 08/18/2009 What’s a person supposed to think about the public option? Is [...]
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WE CAN NOT LET UP ! Please, everyone, do not think this is over. Until we have successful elections, this is NOT over. These people can and will try anything to backdoor, sidedoor, under the table, pass this crap. We cannot allow this in any shape or form !
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Totally agree, LEW. As a matter of fact, this “flip-flopping we’re not sure what we want, maybe this, maybe that” crap coming out of the WH may very well backfire on them. Just fanning the flames, they are.
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