I hate to interrupt the site-wide hate-fest for Joe Wilson. But there was something in the President's speech that... I dunno, seemed kind of important.
under my plan, individuals will be required to carry basic health insurance
http://www.dailykos.com/...
That there is a mandate.
To my progressive friends, I would remind you that for decades, the driving idea behind reform has been to end insurance company abuses and make coverage affordable for those without it. The public option is only a means to that end – and we should remain open to other ideas that accomplish our ultimate goal.
That there is no public option.
[And if you still can't see that's where this is going, you might as well stop reading now. You're beyond reach.]
It seems like just yesterday - maybe even this afternoon - when people round here were saying that a mandate with no public option would be Obama's ultimate betrayal. The worst of both worlds. A gift-wrapped bonanza for Big Insurance torn from the hides of the people desperate enough to believe him when he talked about Change.
Well, guess what, kids. That is now officially Obamacare. Not a trial balloon. Not poor message discipline. Not 12-dimension chess. The man's own vision, spoken from the man's own mouth in primetime right there on the teevee.
You no longer have any "progressive friends", Mr. President. What you have now are progressive enemies.