Here are the FDL Action health care reform highlights for an eventful Monday, October 26.1. Jon Walker writes that Olympia Snowe feels so strongly "about giving the insurance companies another chance" that she's willing "to waste $100 billion of your tax payer money...for the explicit purpose of protecting the private health insurance industry from public competition." And for that, Walker points out, Snowe "is considered to be one of the most 'reasonable' and 'moderate' Republicans in Washington." Of course, "only" wasting $100 billion is moderate compared to Bush's trillion-dollar giveaway to the super-rich or his multi-trillion-dollar adventure in Iraq. So yeah, by those standards, Olympia Snowe's a "moderate." Definitely. Heh.
2. Jane Hamsher takes blogger snark to a high level with "The History of the Conspiracy to Link Obama to Triggers."
3. Jon Walker uses "Occam's Razor" to dissect President Obama's attitude(s) towards the public option and concludes, "Obama does not support–and likely never supported–a strong public option." I'm not sure I agree with Walker on this one, but it's always interesting to see Occam's Razor employed by by someone who knows an issue inside and out.
4. Jane Hamsher urges everyone to sign the petition against triggers, which - in the spirit of Halloween, perhaps - she calls "the zombie that keeps coming back from the dead." Trick or treat? :)
5. Jon Walker explains the "when, how, who, and what of the public option opt-out." The bottom line is that "it is possible to design an opt-out that would result a large number of states opting out of the public option" or one which "would result in very few if any states opting out." Essentially, this is a case if there ever was of "the devil's in the details."
6. Speaking of which, Jane Hamsher has a diary entitled, "Reid’s Opt-Out: The Devil is In the Details." Hamsher concludes that "[d]epending on how an opt-out [is] written, it could potentially disenfranchise large parts of the population." Or not. No wonder they compare legislating to "the making of sausage."
7. Jon Walker reports on the big news of the day, that "Senate Majority Leader has decided to be a real leader and defy Olympia Snowe" by announcing his support for a public option with an "opt-out" provision. Walker hopes this means that "Empress Snowe" has been "dethrone[d]," concluding that a "bill that can pass the Senate without Snowe’s vote will likely be a much better bill in the end." But wait, what about bipartisanship for bipartisanship's sake and all that good stuff? (snark)
8. Jon Walker writes about a CBO analysis on repealing the anti-trust exemption for insurance companies. Walker concludes that this would "at best a light slap on the wrist" and more likely just "so much smoke and mirrors." Having run out of metaphors, I will now conclude the Monday FDL Action health care reform update! :)
