I care that the teabaggers were yelling the same thing....

I wonder how many other progressives will throw their lot in with the teabaggers?

And please, tell the 30 million uninsured this admittedly imperfect bill could cover it will "do nothing".

It is not a travesty. Most people bitching are working off talking points just as stale as those of the baggers.

The Public Option is NOT closed in the way people insist it is. By 2015 it will be potentially open to every employer, it already is open to every individual including those that have coverage either in the individual market or through their employer. It may not be financially advisable for people to opt-out of such coverage, that is why they are called "benefits" but it can be done, something that we confirmed yesterday with someone from Rep. Kennedy's office.

Wyden is wrong. At least in respect to the House Bill. Most of the left Blogosphere is wrong on this because by all I can see very few people have taken the time to actually work through the legistlative language. I don't care that Ezra is smart, when he says that the PO is available to only a "small sliver" of the American people it is because he does not understand the provisions of Sec 411(3)

"3) CONTRIBUTION IN LIEU OF COVERAGE.—
Beginning with Y2, if an employee declines such offer but otherwise obtains coverage in an Exchange- participating health benefits plan (other than by reason of being covered by family coverage as a spouse or dependent of the primary insured), the employer shall make a timely contribution to the Health Insurance Exchange with respect to each such employee in accordance with section 413."

The Public Option is by the bill's definition "an Exchange-participating health benefits plan" and this section shows that at least new hires can opt out of employer coverage and enroll in it. The problem is that people have fatally confused the concepts of "eligibility" and "enrollment" and leaped from CBO's low estimates of the latter to believe the low numbers they see are do to barriers to the former. Well sorry pals that is dead wrong, the Public Option is open to just about everyone, there are just reasons why people are not likely to go through the door.

But in order to discuss exactly the nature of the reasons why CBO projects that so few people will go through that door you have to read the actual bill language.

Or I guess you can get all your knowledge from other ranters and ignorantly cry "Kill the Bill" because of crap that doesn't actually exist in the bill language.

On my estimation about 99% of the fury is coming from the "Single Payer Now!" crowd that have a vested interest in killing any system based on employer provided insurance and so have thrown up huge smoke screens. Like HR676 which is the most ridiculous piece of legislation that ever came down the pike, as written it makes your local optometrist and your local Walgreen's illegal operations. That's right under this bill just about every dentist's office in the country becomes illegal on day one after enactment. People who think that HR676 is just a matter of opening Medicare to everyone are just working off of cheap slogans, instead HR676 radically transforms Medicare into something unrecognizable to anyone today. Which people would understand if they actually READ THE BILL.

Which clearly Farr has not done. With either bill.