How does Shep stay on Fox News? Really? He’s like the worst fit for the network, ever. He doesn’t fit in with any of the right-leaning line, and he knows what he’s talking about in this video. He does more to devastate the arguments against a public option (and big insurers in general) in this video than Democrats fighting tooth and nail for it for six months.
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Remember that Senate vote yesterday? It flopped. Hard. For many, the public option is the crux of the health care debate. But in the Senate Finance Committee, amendments to add a public option couldn’t get enough votes to be added to Sen. Max Baucus’ health care bill. “No one has been able to show me how we can count up to 60 votes with a public option,” Baucus said. On a side note, The Onion conveniently created this article (language NSFW) for conservatives to bring up in this debate. source
A couple Senate Finance Committee Dems plan to push for it today. Obama has seemingly given up on the public option, but other Democrats haven’t, and today, they plan to push for its presence in the Baucus plan by forcing a vote. Sens. Jay Rockefeller and Chuck Schumer may not have the votes to get it passed, so it could be a mere symbolic gesture, but you have to start throwing the kitchen sink at some point. source
This animation follows the mold of the Obama penny videos from a while back. Clever YouTube animation used to argue a political point. This one, however, leans left.
Why is the public option so vitally important to health reform? At the broadest possible level, the public option is necessary simply because it’s impossible to identify a successful health system anywhere in the world based on a for-profit insurance model.
Slate columnist Timothy Noah • Discussing the weaknesses in health care reform that will show up if the public option is off the table. While Obama prefers having it, he’s shown wavering over the last week that makes it seem less-necessary than it once did. Noah puts it this way: “You can also think of the public option as a pressure valve. Without it, the government’s attempt to remake the health sector risks blowing itself to smithereens.” • source