Trial Balloon Bursts

The other day I suggested that the move away from the public option by Obama and his minions might be a head fake, a trial balloon designed to test the reaction from various special interest groups.

And that's what it was. The reaction from the left was apparently vigorous enough to scare Obama back to his original position:

WASHINGTON -- The White House fell into full retreat yesterday from its earlier surrender of Democratic plans for a massive new government-run insurance agency as part of its health-care reform bid.

The Obama administration now says it remains fully behind the idea of a "public option" for government-run insurance, despite clear signals over the weekend from top officials that the public option is not a deal-breaker and is just a "sliver" of the overall reforms it seeks.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs blamed the media for misunderstanding the administration's support.

"The administration's position is unchanged," Gibbs insisted in a testy exchange yesterday during which he handed one reporter exact quotes to read from previous speeches.

"The president prefers the public option as a way of doing that," he said. "If others have ideas, we're open to those ideas and willing to listen to those details. That's what the president has said for months."

The public-health option would be a federally run health-insurance program, similar to Medicare or Medicaid, that would provide insurance to millions of low-income and uninsured Americans. Supporters believe it would compete with private insurers, forcing them to lower prices.

Supporters are wrong. It will end private insurance within a suprisingly short time.

Without a public option the lefties must have threatened to dump the entire bill and leave Obama with nothing, so he is dutifully running back to their position. The Dems now seem to feel they can ram this massive takeover of 1/6th of the U.S. economy with few or no GOP votes, leaving them responsible for the whole mess that will result. I have my doubts they can pull it together for the reasons you'll find at the link.

If nothing else this move should make it clear that the ultimate goal of the Democrats is not "reform" but nationalized health care, and given the polls on that issue right now, it will not only cost the nation dearly but may cost the Democrats the majorities they've so badly misused.