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June 25, 2009
Legislative Maximalism
Atrios posted an item about how the Democrats should've gone into healthcare with single-payer as the benchmark, then compromised down to the public option. Ezra Klein, however, disagrees:
If President Obama had begun health reform with a speech aggressively laying out the case for single payer, the next morning's newspapers would be filled with stories suggesting that 40 Republicans and 30 Democrats had pronounced Obama's health reform effort dead on arrival. And when that got torn apart, Obama's credibility on the issue would've been substantially shredded.
I definitely agree with Ezra on this one. Single-payer is, of course, something I strongly support, but take a look at the fight against the public option from the corrupt and spineless, then multiply that times a gazillion and that's what we'd be witnessing right now had the president basically announced the complete dismantling of a trillion dollar system. As Ezra wrote, such a proposal would've almost entirely doomed healthcare reform and we'd have nothing.
The public option allows the dismantling to potentially happen in a more natural, organic fashion. Either that or it'll significantly streamline the system. It's a win-win.
Filed under: Ezra Klein || Healthcare || Public Option
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Posted By Bob Cesca | June 25, 2009 7:25 PM
Comments
Bob, I can't think of a time when I've disagreed with your position, until now.
The Public Option still feeds the insurance industry.
It will likely be crumbs in terms of what it offers, if
it goes through at all.
This was the moment to be BOLD when the people
are so behind Single Payer.
Obama is phenomenal at selling his ideas: he could
have certainly picked this up as his "big cause" and
sold it and fought for it.
I'm very disappointed that he wasn't bolder on this.
Posted by: Terri ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.bobcesca.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at June 25, 2009 7:50 PM
Check this out.
Posted by: Terri at June 25, 2009 7:50 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWBZz070m-k&eurl
Here's the link :)
Posted by: Terri at June 25, 2009 7:52 PM
Great page today Bob.
Posted by: CMLA at June 25, 2009 8:12 PM
There is no way Obama could have sold the complete dismantling of an industry in a time when hundreds of thousands of people are losing their jobs. I don't know why anyone would ever think that.
Posted by: Allonfla at June 25, 2009 10:02 PM
oh, you're so right, allonfla! Trained, experienced people would probably have a tough time finding work in a single payer system...
/sarcasm
Posted by: ceu at June 25, 2009 10:13 PM
I'm with Terri on this...
Posted by: Stranahan at June 26, 2009 2:10 AM
@ceu: Well, plenty of trained, experienced people are having a tough time finding work right now. Plus, you would have a lot of the same backlash you're seeing in the financial industry (i.e., why are we allowing the people who participated in and profited from this corrupt system so long take part in the new system?). Not saying it's not possible, just saying that it wouldn't be so simple.
Frankly, I don't think the "people" are strongly behind anything, because a majority of the people have no idea what they're talking about.
Posted by: J at June 26, 2009 11:05 AM
