Your Daily Dose of Health Care Reform Stupidity

Well, my darlings, it looks as if the public option is dying a slow and painful death in the Senate.  You can thank Joe Lieberman for that.  He's still being an obstinate ass, even though his own supporters are pounding him over fucking Connecticut over this.  Apparently, Joe Lieberman's need to feel relevant is far more important to him than what his constituents want.

So, if we lose the public option, what might we get?  Well, there's talk of an OPM plan, which would basically create "a national, non-profit health plan along the lines of the Federal Employee Health Benefits Plan, which offers coverage to members of Congress."  And there's a Medicare buy-in on the table.  They're not bad alternatives, as far as I can tell.  Debbie Stabenow, public option supporter, says it really doesn't matter as long as the alternatives accomplish the same goals as the public option.  We'll see if Whining Joe Lieberman can accept that.  Alas for him, if he manages to kill the public option but still wants to throw a tantrum over the alternatives, he may just manuever himself out of leverage, because Queen Snowe could come back into play.

Isn't sausage-making fun?

And, of course, Lieberman's the only idiot in the Dem caucus throwing tantrums.  Ben Nelson's introduced his just-like-Stupak's-Stupidity amendment, and still insists he will settle for no less.  Debbie Stabenow is basically telling him to go fuck himself on that one.

Harry Reid hit the Cons particularly hard over their dumbfuckery:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's office is criticizing the GOP's "fake outrage" in response to comments he made on the Senate floor this morning.

Earlier today, Reid whacked Republicans for attempting to kill health care reform, comparing their obstructive tactics to those used to slow the end of slavery, women's suffrage, and civil rights.

When this country belatedly recognized the wrongs of slavery, some dug intheir heels and said, "slow down."
When women spoke up for their right to speak up--when they demanded the vote--some insisted they simly stop.

When this body was on the verge of guaranteeing equal civil rights to all citizens...some senators resorted to the same filibuster threats that we hear today.

Powerful stuff.  You can tell how powerful by how loudly Cons are crying.  Now if only Harry would hit the Conservadems that hard, we might actually get a decent health care reform bill going.

Cons are busy being upset at Harry right now, but they're really going to be screaming when they see what Al Franken's got in store.  How they'll be able to vote against forcing the insurance companies to spend more of their money on actually providing customers with health care and justify it, I'm not sure.

Insurance companies, on the other hand, are supporting Tenthers in a last-ditch effort to avoid the effects of reform.  Any more evidence needed that they are not on our side?

Grassley's doubled-down on the Cons' failed gimmick, and now wants not only Congress, but the President and White House and everybody else to get the same health care the rest of us end up getting.  I don't think he quite understands that Dems like this idea, the President included.

Oh, and Cons?  Don't get too excited about those polls showing most Americans are against health care reform.  It turns out that many folks are against the current bills because they're not reformalicious enough.  Which means that the vast majority of the country still wants meaningful reform.  Suck it, punks!