We all know that the untrustworthy politicians who comprise the bulk of Democratic members of Congress and the key decision makers in the White House are furiously scheming to ditch the "public option" compromise upon which Obama and Co. sold this insurance subsidy plan to progressives.  We all know that it was disasterous to waste most of this year looking for a mythical group of Republicans willing to negotiate in good faith on the subject of healthcare reform because no such group exists: never did and never will.  We all know it was also a foolish mistake on the part of Obama and the progressives to take our strongest and most desirable health care reform position off the table before anything else.  We all know and even Obama himself has made plain that he knows it too, we should not be debating an insurance subsidy bill which is what is going on but instead we should be focusing on some form of single payer plan such as Medicare for All. 

Obama's foolish bargain with the devil to flip flop on single payer once he became a candidate for President is the biggest tactical error among many that he has made during his metamorphasis from liberal Senator leading the fight for change to conservative, timid, DLC Democratic defender of the status quo.  Now, because of his desire to be popular with the monied interests so they would help fuel his campaign, the nation suffers and faces a choice between an, at best, undesirable alleged healthcare reform bill including a pale imitation of the public option Obama himself previously stated was an absolutely necessary feature of any reform package and a flat out rotten bill written by and for the special interests that primarily sucks billions out of the treasury to further enrich the greedy, unethical businessmen profiting off the current bad system.  If the first bad choice is adopted it might be to the political benefit of Democrats.  If the latter is chosen it will be disasterous for Democrats and those elected officials who get thrown out of office as a result will have richly earned their defeat.  Unfortunately, once again, the people who will suffer most are the common, everyday Americans who always have to suffer most.

We all know that what stands in the way of reform more than anything else is not the reluctance or confusion of the American people but the opposition of the health insurance, pharamceutical, and other industries that benefit from the current rotten system we have which is too expensive, doesn't cover everyone and produces amongst the worst health outcomes in the industrialized world.  We all know it isn't the Republicans who stand in the way of real healthcare reform because they are such a tiny minority they cannot have much influence on the outcome unless the Democrats abdicate their power which they seem more than willing to do at every turn.  We all know that even with the great power of the insurance and associated parasitic industries, the Democrats have enough votes to pass anything they wish but that there are enough corrupt Democrats up for sale such as Nelson, Landrieu and Lieberman that the 60/40 partisan split in the Senate is really only technically a fillibusterproof majority and the margin in the house is, in fact, much smaller than it appears for the very same kinds of reasons.

We are faced with a familiar political problem now which is all as a result of the predictable and now commonplace Democratic cowardice and lack of backbone.  Obama and many Democrats campaigned on reforming healthcare dramatically and the people supported that proposition overwhelmingly as evidenced by the huge majorities in Congress and the Democratic victory for the White House.  But the Democrats haven't in the past and don't have now, the courage to actually propose and support the kind of reform that is needed.  The best, easiest to implement, easy to explain, most cost efficient and effective healthcare reform is to pass some form of single payer national healthcare plan.  This fact is really beyond rational and honest dispute.  The best single payer option out there is, IMHO, the Medicare for All bill.  But the Democrats in DC are such cowards and so afraid to anger their owners, on behalf of the people they are supposed to represent, that they ran away from the one option really worth fighting for and the one that would seal Democratic victory for the next 40 years just as Social Security did many years ago.  So they ditched single payer and sold us a bill of goods called "a public option" without which the President told us, there could be no real reform.  So reluctantly, progressives started lining up behind the public option as at least a start and an example.  But in an all too familiar move by the Democrats of DC, they have all but ditched even the public option at this point and are now hiding behind euphemisms for weak imitations that theoretically could provide some of the benefits of the public option idea.  So instead of fighting for the public option feature we are being asked to swallow a poison pill that will cover the politicians' asses but not those of the American people when they get sick and need healthcare.

Instead of healthcare reform, we are witnessing yet another version of the usual set of excuses and reasoning for why the people must accept the failure of corporate centrist Democrats to represent their interests and to do even remotely what they were elected to do.  The President and his people have been telegraphing for weeks that they are going to dump their own "essential" feature of healthcare reform and instead hide behind the famously time worn industry-friendly phrases "competition" and "choice".  Now, anyone who's lived the past 35 years knows everytime an unsuccessful attempt at reform is made in DC of some industry directly impacting the lives of most Americans and gets hijacked by the industry and its lobbyists that they always hide behind those phrases or variants of them.  And it always means the little guy is going to get royally screwed.

The Obama of earlier in the year would have pointed out truthfully that there is no meaningful competition or choice in the area of healthcare without, at minimum, a strong public option.  Not anymore.  Now it's simply a matter of finding any excuse to justify and rationalize this pig in a poke so the President can achieve a victory in name only that isn't worth having and the people are simply presented with the poison pill and told to take their medicine once again.  That the President and his people are so willing to flip flop so dramatically and now try to hypnotize the public into believing that the opposite of what they said about a public option is true is genuinely disappointing and downright disgusting.  After all the other flip flops and open betrayals of his campaign promises one has to wonder if there really is anything at all that the President campaigned on that doesn't become instantly unnecessary if even one right wing or monied interest raises an objection.  It's as though the President and his people are afraid of everything.  With all the backpedaling and excuses for not doing as promised, the President looks more and more like the weakling Harry Reid who seems unable to organize a trip to the bathroom let alone major reform legislation.

What remains of the much vaunted effort to reform the nation's healthcare system is now not much more than a massive subsidy plan that will enrich insurance companies, cost taxpayers far more than real reform, not cover everyone and which will quickly become deeply unpopular.  If, at minimum, there is no public option that is designed to succeed (not fail) included in the legislation it will not be worth passing or signing.  It will be worse than leaving the current system as it is because the average voter will get little out of it other than increased costs.  The foolish DLC type Democrats will argue that we "must" pass "something" this year or else it will be disasterous.  Oh really?  These people, like Rahm were also the guys advising Democrats to support the Iraq war resolution in order to "take the war off the table" as an issue when a majority of our people were against the war.  These same people were advising Democrats to avoid the war issue in 2006 election because it was too risky.  They were wrong on these and many other things.  They are wrong now and have been wrong all year on healthcare reform.

Mr. President, if you are listening, or if someone there at 1600 is paying attention please pay some heed.  The middle of the road half measures you've proposed are too little, too late, and far too expensive for the American people to swallow without what you yourself told us was absolutely essential: a strong public option to keep the insurance companies honest.  Anything less and we all know the tinkering in the rest of the bill means little.  The people were expecting real reform of the healthcare system but instead you apparently think it's okay to hide behind the buzzwords  "choice" and "competition" to make them think that will make the bad bill you are willing to support an acceptable "compromise" when in fact it is at best a capitulation.  Do not hide behind these words in the hopes of getting us to swallow the poison pill that is your "compromise."  It isn't too late Mr. President for you to stand up and fight at least for the public option instead of surrendering to the worst elements in healthcare related industries, Washington and the Democratic Party itself.

There are worse things than losing and one of them is saddling our people with a "reform" package that sucks and primarily serves the interests of the parasites while making little or no positive difference in the lives of average Americans.  At least if you lose while fighting for what is right you can be proud of what you managed to do under difficult circumstances and you will have the distinct benefit of giving the public a clear choice in the next off year elections and people will know where the Democratic Party stands on healthcare.  It would be far better politically to lose and use that defeat against the Republicans and the corrupt Democrats in next year's elections.  It is far, far better to make the lines clear for the people about who is actually on their side and who is not than it is to blur the lines so badly as you have already done far too much of.  Why not just for once flip flopping and taking the progressive position instead of telling the vast majority of those who voted for you against Hillary to take a hike once again?

No poison pill Mr. President.  Please.  You've already hoodwinked us into swallowing poison pills on transparency in government, the rule of law, the bailout of the Wall Street crooks, and ending the two pointless wars.  A poison pill on healthcare too?  No thanks.  That's just not a pill that I or many progressive Democrats are willing to swallow. 

I have a prediction though, if you ignore all the progressive voices warning you of disaster and are successful in getting enough Democrats to swallow the poison pill of healthcare reform sans the real reform: the damage you will have done to your own future electoral chances and that of Democrats up and down the line will be catastrophic. 

So, just this once Mr. President, stiffen your backbone and lead like an actual Democrat and not some milquetoast corporate centrist.  Not only will your conscience be clear Mr. President, but your political future will be much brighter indeed.