Conrad/Baucus Health Care Bill Has Succeeded In Uniting Americans On Health Care

Uniting them in opposition, that is. Well done, guys. Over 90% of Americans don’t like the bill. At least according to one online poll, which is something less than perfect it terms of scientific validity. But when the results are that lop-sided?
The point is clear. And the result is backed up by what we’re seeing in the political arena as well. Conservatives hate it. Liberals hate it. Everyone hates it.
What’s actually sort of curious to me, though, is why liberals hate it. They claim they don’t like it because it doesn’t include a “public option” but what they don’t see is that the co-ops included in the bill are a public option. Just a bit more subtle.
Co-ops as created by the Conrad/Baucus bill aren’t specifically arms of the government like the “public option” would be, but they’d be created by government. Subsidized by government. Managed by government. And you’d buy into them through a government-run health care exchange.
If that’s not government health care, what is?
Far be it from me to decry the political gridlock surrounding this bill. With Democrats controlling the House, Senate and White House gridlock may be the only thing that saves us from a truly awful health care bill (which this is). But the Conrad/Baucus bill would create the Fannie Maes and Freddie Macs of health care that would allow the government to dominate the health insurance industry in the same way they’ve come to dominate the financial sector.
This is what the liberals want. They just can’t seem to see it.