As I said yesterday, let's see what Monday brings with respect to this whole "White House prepared to drop public option" story from yesterday. Sure enough, the White House today denied that such was the case. It strikes me as yet another White House trial balloon to test the reaction from both sides, only to disavow it within a day or two (as we've seen multiple times from this White House). But one of our favorite angry old left-wingers, Bob Beckel, had a different take on Hannity's panel tonight on Fox News. To give Beckel his due, he knows a lot about politics, and when he talks from a "what's going on here" political perspective, I listen.
You'll notice that when Administration folks were hinting yesterday that they'd be willing to pull the "public option" off the table, it was qualified with talk about "cooperatives" being an acceptable alternative. (BTW, getting at the truth of what such "cooperatives" would actually entail will be an endeavor of mine, and should be of yours, in the days to come, because I have no damn idea, although I have a strong suspicion that these will be bodies set up by the federal government, run by the federal government for at least some period of years, and I'm struggling to see how they might be truly any different from the "public option," although I digress). Returning to Beckel, his take seemed to be that such "cooperatives" will ultimately be a part of some sort of compromise bill between the radical leftists and the so-called "blue dogs." Beckel even went so far as to predict that some repubs will come on board because the compromise bill will involve a degree of tort reform.
You'll notice that when Administration folks were hinting yesterday that they'd be willing to pull the "public option" off the table, it was qualified with talk about "cooperatives" being an acceptable alternative. (BTW, getting at the truth of what such "cooperatives" would actually entail will be an endeavor of mine, and should be of yours, in the days to come, because I have no damn idea, although I have a strong suspicion that these will be bodies set up by the federal government, run by the federal government for at least some period of years, and I'm struggling to see how they might be truly any different from the "public option," although I digress). Returning to Beckel, his take seemed to be that such "cooperatives" will ultimately be a part of some sort of compromise bill between the radical leftists and the so-called "blue dogs." Beckel even went so far as to predict that some repubs will come on board because the compromise bill will involve a degree of tort reform.
My bottom line: Any tort reform = good, although I won't support a bill if I view it to be a bad one overall even if there's a measure of tort reform involved. The real question is just precisely what these "cooperatives" would entail, and since no such compromise has even been reached yet and no "cooperative" language is currently in any of the various congressional versions of the health care reform bill, it is impossible to reach right now any kind of informed opinion on the "cooperatives" issue. Sure, I've already heard right-wingers saying tonight that cooperatives are the exact same as the public option, and left-wingers saying the opposite -- but those viewpoints are as predictable as the sun coming up in the morning. If the "cooperatives" truly become a part of the bill (as Beckel predicts), all of us really need to focus on them to ascertain the truth of what's actually being proposed.
Final aside, tonight: Hilarious exchange between right-wing ideologue Hannity and left-wing ideologue Beckel. Beckel was again trumpeting his view that Obama is the "greatest American president since FDR!" Hannity's response: [Stated very slowly, calmly and deliberately] "Are you out of your mind?" Great television (and personally, I think both of those dudes, to a certain degree, are out of their minds, although as I said, I listen to Beckel when he's opining on what's really going on and what will occur in the political world).
Final aside, tonight: Hilarious exchange between right-wing ideologue Hannity and left-wing ideologue Beckel. Beckel was again trumpeting his view that Obama is the "greatest American president since FDR!" Hannity's response: [Stated very slowly, calmly and deliberately] "Are you out of your mind?" Great television (and personally, I think both of those dudes, to a certain degree, are out of their minds, although as I said, I listen to Beckel when he's opining on what's really going on and what will occur in the political world).
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