Electioneering, smoke and mirrors.

Isn't it interesting that the number 1 concern on DU today is whether this or that politician supports the "Public Option"? In a 1000 page reform consisting of a plethora of regulations on the insurance industry, the ONLY thing that concerns most people is the "Public Option".

Get on the phone! Write your congressmen! No votes if no public option! No option, no re-election...etc, etc.....

While scored by the CBO, at most, it is estimated to cover 12 million people by 2019. Being self-sustaining, premium driven, and fire-walled from the majority of Americans (to remove it from being an "option"), it will probably not significantly introduce competition or lower overall health care costs *as it has been proposed in past drafts*. Most people WILL NOT qualify to enroll in it. It will essentially have not ability to "keep insurance companies honest"...

12 million Americans in a decade! There are 45 million uninsured already!

But, this is the bar, the line in the sand, that almost everyone here has adopted. All other debate further to the left is now moot and pointless.

Its brilliant. Its politics at its finest. The politicians have literally manufactured and sold this position as a leftist triumph. The ones supporting it are beating their chests proudly, making loud proclamations, and letting the world know they will fight to the end for it (for a rather negligible part of the bill in my opinion). And the people. They eat it up. There are a whole other lot of heroes and villains today based on those who do and do not support it. Media trumps it up, and polls are gagueing and pushing public opinion. The entire success of the bill is measure by this "public option" now, and very little else in it seems to matter (like subsidies, pre-existing conditions, insurers dropping sick patients).

Public option or nothing.

It is absolutely brilliant how they pulled it all off, to be completely honest. But at the end of the day, no matter how you feel about the bill...what does that say about the American people? What does it say about the American political system?

Sometimes this all seems like less of a game, and more of a joke. Do you ever feel like the punchline?