No Option

First, the good news - Harry Reid supports the public option. The Senate Democratic leader said yesterday that a government-run public health insurance program will be in the Senate bill.

Now the bad news, unless your politics is different from mine - it doesn't have a chance.

There are a least three senators in the Democratic Senate majority - Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, and Joe Lieberman of Connecticut - who oppose the public option due to opposition to a government-run health insurance program in these states. Especially in Connecticut, where the insurance industry dominates and the insurance salesman is the state bird.

Senators Tom Carper of Delaware and Charles Schumer of New York have suggested making it possible for states to opt of out a public health insurance program. Hello - it's a national system! It's not a states' rights issue, like self-serve gasoline (and I'm still ticked off at New Jersey for opting out of that!) It's a nationwide issue! We can't have a national system that leaves states out! It would be like Amtrak not serving South Dakota. . ..

Okay, bad example! :-O