I believe REGULATION is better than destruction.
Pharmaceuticals, Healthcare, Insurance and Tort Reform

What worries me about it, though, is the destruction of an entire industry to acheive that goal.
I'm just tired of politicians on both sides lining their pockets with money from those industries to keep the status quo. The list of contributions to Dems and GOP Congressmen is mind-boggling.

I don't like it, but if they are going to do it, just go all the way with the single-payer system and get it over with. 50/50 doesn't work with much in the government.

My biggest concern is that we're not trading one monopoly and prostitutes, for another monopoly and another bunch of prostitutes. Out of the frying pan and into the fire.

But if the Dems force this thing through. I'll be ticked. Most of us will be (I think).

In this we concur. At TMV, millions of electrons have been splashed across the screen debating the philosophic, fiscal, and constitutional aspects of health care reform. None of those carefully debated issues from here have showed up in senate discussions. It's about the money, and prostitutes on both sides of the aisle have worked hard to keep the profits flowing just like normal.

I'll vote for anybody that shows they have a genuine concern for the American public. Party affiliation is less important than than honest service to the public.

You may dislike the public option, but at least it is an attempt to break up the health care cartel that buys votes to guarantee profits. If you have another method to break the monopoly, I'm all ears.

None (or few) in Congress has the intestinal fortitude to stand against the ones that line their pockets:
Pharmaceutical companies.
Insurance companies.
Healthcare corporations.
Trial lawyers.

If they actually fixed those problems, we'd need no public option, and healthcare would be much much more affordable. I've got no problem with the government providing healthcare for children and the elderly. Heck, fix it and expand it if they want to.

In all honesty I don't think the public option is essential to health care reform. But if there is no public option then there needs to be greater subsidies than those offered right now. Otherwise you get working class people literally threatened with fines – or even jail – for not giving their money to private insurance companies who have NO incentive to cut costs.

The corruption in our system is mind-boggling.

But even without, the Carper and Nelson (FL) votes actually bring the confirmed total to 51 votes in the Senate for the first time. Under reconciliation the Senate could pass the public option.

What I'm hoping is that the Senate passes everything ELSE with 60 votes this year. And then it goes back and passes the public option as a completely separate bill under reconciliation – much of the other reform measures cannot be passed under reconciliation.

Another possibility is triggers, which has the support of Snowe and probably the remaining Dem holdouts. I'm not against triggers – as long as they are real.

I guess that's what you get for playing liberal DC politics, when you're a Democrat representing a “red” state.