Pelosi: No Public Option, No Bill

[MadImmortalMan]

I'm glad somebody on the Dem side is sticking to the guns.  Not that I entirely agree with the particular part of this particular issue, but in general having Obama continue to compromise without getting anything at all in return is getting a bit tiresome.  Somebody needs to wear the pants in that party.

He hasn't had to do much compromising so far. He's mostly gotten what he wanted--or at least what Nancy Pelosi has told him he wanted.

[alfred russel]

Could Obama and Pelosi be playing a good cop, bad cop game?  That would be too clever by Democrats, but stanger things have happened.

Pelosi saying she won't pass a health care bill without a public option, and 40+ senators (senate republicans plus some senate democrats) indicating they won't support a bill that has a public option doesn't seem like a good cop/bad cop routine--it seems like a log jam.

[Sheilbh]

The sad thing is that she is probably right - reform without the public option is likely not worth the trouble.

Really?  My understanding is that without the public option the system would basically be the same as the Swiss.

[Valmy]

The sad thing is that she is probably right - reform without the public option is likely not worth the trouble.

Of course, reform with it is probably not possible.

I am going to have to disagree with you.  Reform is necessary, particularly efforts to negotiate down costs with the big drug and medical providers.

There are surely some things the government can do without the public option.

[Jaron]

Obama '08..


Obama '12...



Obama FOREVER!

[Queequeg]

The sad thing is that she is probably right - reform without the public option is likely not worth the trouble.

Really?  My understanding is that without the public option the system would basically be the same as the Swiss.

That's what I am thinking.  The "public option" strikes me as wording as much as anything else, a good reform of incentives and tort, maybe with some monitoring of the health care industry as well, would be good enough. 

[Queequeg]

So who's gonna be elected POTUS in 2012?  Romney?  Jindal?  Pawlenty? 

I can go with Pawlenty, and would probably take Romney over Obama at this point.

I'm not totally sure what your problem is with him.  Gay rights?  He's flopped a bit, but there are other priorities.  Thusfar I don't think he's really made a huge mistake on the stimulus of foreign affairs, which makes him a thousand times better than George W. Bush and better than any likely Republican nominee, including Mitt "Double Guantanamo" Romney.

[Valmy]

Obama '08..


Obama '12...



Obama FOREVER!

Jaron Wallace has spoken.

[Valmy]

I can go with Pawlenty, and would probably take Romney over Obama at this point.

We are going to have to put up with Faeelin the anti-Obama spambot until then?  Oh boy.

[The Minsky Moment]

I'm for the public option but this is classic cut the nose to spite the face.  If you can get 70% percent of what you want, why would you insist on getting zero instead?

[Savonarola]

I can go with Pawlenty, and would probably take Romney over Obama at this point.

We are going to have to put up with Faeelin the anti-Obama spambot until then?  Oh boy.

You shouldn't be so hard of Faeelin; he's going through an important stage.  The stage where his once idealistic dreams of youth are brutally crushed by the system leaving him a bitter shell of the man he once was.  It's a necessary stage in the development of any true Languideshian.

[jimmy olsen]

I can go with Pawlenty, and would probably take Romney over Obama at this point.

We are going to have to put up with Faeelin the anti-Obama spambot until then?  Oh boy.

You shouldn't be so hard of Faeelin; he's going through an important stage.  The stage where his once idealistic dreams of youth are brutally crushed by the system leaving him a bitter shell of the man he once was.  It's a necessary stage in the development of any true Languideshian.

Is it?

[Savonarola]

You shouldn't be so hard of Faeelin; he's going through an important stage.  The stage where his once idealistic dreams of youth are brutally crushed by the system leaving him a bitter shell of the man he once was.  It's a necessary stage in the development of any true Languideshian.

Is it?

It happens to everyone.  IT IS YOUR DESTINY.   

[Sheilbh]

I can't think of any Republican I like, except Huckabee.

Palin scares me.  I'm not entirely sure Romney's human (and he ties his dog to the top of the car!).  Pawlenty seems dull.  I use to think Sanford was interesting until he went hiking.  I don't think Jindal sounds 'Presidential' (his voice seems too high-pitched to me, hard to take seriously for a President).

So for me at this point it's all about Huckabee

[Faeelin]

I can't think of any Republican I like, except Huckabee.

Hrmm. Given how Huckabee is probably the most homophobic of the lot, I'm surprised.