How they must laugh at us.

Forget it Gibbs, people will just believe what they want to believe. There are already hundreds of blogs saying you did drop the public option even after your first clarification. You're wasting time - so next question.

Well, if it's Tuesday they must be for it.

Promise us the moon and give us a steaming pile of...

Buh bye Democratic Party. I am so done with you.

I have no doubt that the White House did this as a trial balloon, to see just how much trouble they would be in if they truly did negotiate away the public option. Our passionate response to that and, most likely, some quick polls showed them that there really is very strong support for the public option, and health care reform without is it just business as usual. To expect them to admit this would really be naive.

We should have learned from this that applying pressure works, at least to some extent. So, let us up the pressure.

Perceptually, the White House is spending way too much time saying what they will not do!

Either this was a backstabbing trial balloon or they are incompetently off-message. Neither is a good sign.

Pretty much everyone got this wrong by (mind?) reading into what Sebelius and Obama said. The media have such a hard time getting anything right. It was only a couple of months ago that lefty bloggers didn't even know that there was going to be a public option and were freaking out over it. Of course, it is important for your Reps to know that you know that we MUST have a solid public option in the bill.

Watch here if you want to know what is going to happen:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/8/17/768013/-Howard-Dean-schools-Morning-Joe-on-public-option-strategy-(UPDATED-wvideosaction-item)

The problem is that now we will relax -- until the next time. And believe me, there will be a next time.

We must not relax. We must keep the pressure on; let them KNOW in no uncertain terms that a ROBUST public option is non-negotiable, and not one of many options.

Another thing, the more we applaud this man (Obama) the more contempt he has for us; indeed, the more the Republicans abuse him, the more he yields to them and tries to placate them.

We should learn something from that. Maybe he has a self esteem problem.

Many reformers recognized roughly 30 percent of all health-care spending in the U.S. -some $700 billion a year- might be wasted on unnecessary tests and treatments, and payment reform could solve this problem. Is this claim overstatement ? Please not to fear quitting drug !

Provided the American people pay around double the amount of efficient systems, the result is still well below them, the ratio of waste might be estimated to far more than 50% in the U.S.

Let's be conservative regarding the ratio. If 10% of savings apply to the combined Medicare and Medicaid cost of $923.5bn per year, as of July, the savings of $923.5bn over the next decade are possible.

And when these savings add to the already allocated $583 billion, the savings of wastes involving so called "doughnut hole" , the unnecessary subsidies for insurers, abuse, exorbitant costs by the tragic ER visits etc, the concern over revenue might be a thing of the past.

As a matter of fact, with the promising redesign in the pipeline, some patient-focused clinics in 10 regions have already achieved 16% of savings in Medicare while their quality scores are well above average.

Please be 'sure' to visit http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/opinion/13gawande.html?hp for credible evidences !

Thankfully, the provisions in the reform include more expansive, systematic policies including 'a patient's outcome-based payment system' than they have. I for one firmly believe this American innovation, 'a patient's outcome-based payment system' , is capable of turning profit-oriented practices into patient-focused system / value.

Dr. Armadio at Mayo clinic says, "If we got rid of that stuff (waste), we save a third of all that we spend and that is 2.5 trillion dollars on health care. A third of that and that is 700 billion dollars a year. That covers a lot of uninsured people."

Please visit http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=820455&catid=391 for detailed infos

Thank You !

Can we finally put "Bipartisanship" in the coffin? No matter what's in the bill, the Repubs are voting against it. Keep the public option, bring the Dems together and do what the majority of the electorate voted you into office for.

More disturbing than the President's "sliver" comment, was its context. In the town hall, the questioner asked, "How can private insurers compete with a government entity?" And instead of answering the question, President Obama started talking about how the Public Option wasn't really very important in the overall scheme of things. Why didn't the President simply answer the question?

For example, private insurers could compete by reducing outrageous executive compensation (e.g. compare the salaries of the VA head with the head of United Healthcare). Private insurers could compete by reducing the amount of money they spend on ads and marketing campaigns. Private insurers could compete by cutting back on bloated staff. Private companies could compete by -- gosh -- offering value-added services. There are zillions of ways to answer the question. So why the cop-out?

For more info on why we NEED a public option

see

http://tuftsroundtable.org/blog/21st-century-sagas/273-need-a-good-laugh-idea-that-co-operatives-can-replace-public-option-is-just-lolz

Obama folds like a cheap suit at the slightest push from a discredited GOP minority. Reid is his political twin who allows Baucus and Grassley to hijack health care legislation from the 60-40 Democratic senate to a 3-3 committee panel.

Where are the big blue state senators??? Why aren't they asserting themselves? It's unbelievable. It's incredible. It's the fatally wimpy, spineless, gutless Democratic party.

And don't be fooled by cooperatives. They are a trojan horse to kill a real public option. Don't let Obama sell this fraud as real health care reform.

I'm not so sure that Obama's folding. I think he's tougher than a lot of folks give him credit for, and I think he's got a lot of steel in him.
I hear he's going to be meeting with the Clinton's next week - both Hils and Bill. Now for sure, he's gonna talk to them about their various tours overseas and get briefed on what all happened - and he'll thank Bill for getting those journalists out of Korea ... but what else will they all talk about?

Maybe health care, ya think? ... Hils knows that end of it, she's knowlegable and she's tough. Maybe they'll talk about the Blue Dog Dems (mostly from the south) and the opposition those guys are putting up against health care reform. And ya know, then I think ... who's the wiliest, toughest hombre around who's also a southerner - and who's got a history of bending arms and rub noses into shit and playing mean? Ya think Bill Clinton qualifies? Would Obama's health care bill pass if "somebody" like Bill got the Blue Dogs on side?

I dunno, maybe yes, maybe no -- but I sit here wondering -- and I just got a feeling Obama's got something up his sleeve. This meeting ain't JUST for a debriefing, I'm sure. The fat lady ain't sung yet.

Could we be witnessing trial balloons being launched. Maybe this was an exercise to see how much more support the healthcare reform were to get if the public option was eliminated, and since the reception from the Republican side was tepid at best, the trial balloon was popped and everything is back to where it was Saturday.

Could we be witnessing trial balloons being launched. Maybe this was an exercise to see how much more support the healthcare reform were to get if the public option was eliminated, and since the reception from the Republican side was tepid at best, the trial balloon was popped and everything is back to where it was Saturday.

I like Maddow -- she's one sharp cookie cutter -- but I stopped watching her last year during the election when she was so depressingly pessimistic about Obama winning, up to and until he did. Snarky cynical pessimism is her MO, not easy to swallow on a daily basis. I happened to catch her show yesterday while channel-surfing and she was bemoaning the death of the PO because of what Sibelius said -- I nearly threw the remote at my TV! It ain't dead! Congress is on vacation! I kept yelling this at my TV, but she wouldn't listen -- and I'll never watch her show again.