We Could be Dancing: Doing the Public Option Hokey Pokey

You put your left vote in.
They take their right vote out.
You put your left vote in.
Then you really shout it out.
You do the Hokey Pokey with the Public Option clout.
That’s what it’s all about.

It would seem on the surface that in light of what transpired in Washington yesterday, by all rights Lefties should be thrilled. Majority Leader Harry Reid stated unequivocally that there will be a Public Option in any Health Care Reform Bill that comes out of the Senate…and we had previously been assured by Speaker Nancy Pelosi that the Bill the House puts forward will also include a ‘robust’ Public Option.

So, to paraphrase Janis Joplin…now that we’re here, where are we?

Let’s start with Reid’s assertion that the Senate bill will feature a Public Option with an opt out…meaning individual states will be able to opt out of the program after a pre-determined period of time…say a year. No problem for people who want and need a Public Option and happen to live in a blue state…but potentially devastating news for those that have been counting on a Public Option and, when it comes to acquiring health insurance, have the misfortune of residing in a red state. So on balance…some good and some bad in the news department.

In any case when Reid went all in on the Public Option, not surprisingly he was assailed by the usual suspects on the right. What was surprising…perhaps even stunning…was that he was also questioned by some on the left. One pundit, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, went so far as to say that Reid had effectively thrown Maine’s Olympia Snowe, the lone Republican to vote with the Democrats to move a Senate Bill out of committee, under the bus for crying out loud!

Others say the only reason Reid came down on the side of a Public Option was because he was afraid he would lose the support of Democrats in his re-election bid in Nevada. Well duh! These are the same people who only the day before had been warning that if Reid didn’t support a Public Option, he would lose the support of Democrats in his re-election bid in Nevada! So now they’re criticizing him for doing what they warned him he’d better freaking do. Kind of gives you a headache, doesn’t it?

Then there are the reported whispers supposedly coming out of the White House…that the President actually prefers the trigger mechanism favored by Senator Snowe to the opt out plan Reid favors. Of course, those are just whispers. Nobody has actually heard Barack Obama say anything like that publicly…at least not yet.

Until we do…and until the Senate and the House produce their actual bills…let’s just chill. The fact is that no one knows for sure how all of this is going to flesh out. We won’t know unless and until a Health Care Reform Bill actually comes up for final debate… which looks probable now but is by no means a certifiable lock. So essentially, everyone’s getting all lathered up about something that doesn’t even exist…and how stupid is that?

Seriously Democrats, let’s leave it to the GOP to eat their own. One circus in town at a time is more than enough. And while we’re at it, let Snowe go back over to the dark side, and take Joe Lieberman with her. Who the hell cares? That butt hole dances the Hokey Pokey with two right feet anyway.

The Public Option is still alive in spite of them…but Washington bipartisanship is deader than Dick Cheney’s conscience.

And so it goes.


SC