What Did President Ben Nelson and Prime Minister Olympia Snowe Think?

What Did President Ben Nelson and Prime Minister Susan Snowe Think?
You mean Olympia Snowe. Or Susan Collins.

As pointed out in the another thread, it's hard to take seriously any "triggers" that Snowe is offering as a "compromise" when she is 100% against the public option and is practically ordering the President Of The United States to take it off the table to buy off her vote.

This really is Snowe's moment to step forward for her Moment In History. Instead, she's using the moment to gut things like she did with the Stimulous. Rather than a sense of a place in history, she shows little more than a sense of a place at the table to get fat.

John

The public plan is dead. Until Obama says it out loud, it will continue to be a (counterproductive)sticking point in the debate. The sooner progressives get over their disappointment, the sooner a bill can pass.

I know the public plan is dead, and frankly it died the second that Single Payer was pulled from the table (which was day one). My point is that I'd rather Leadership and the White House came right out and said they sold it out to Big Health rather than lie to us with a Trigger that will been gamed that it will never be pulled.

John

Senator Snowe should be asked what she thinks of the moral character of insurers who would deny or rescind coverage to people who then die, based on the excuse that it is necessary to compete for profit.

Then she should be asked why it must be necessary for individuals to continue to pay money to these insurers in the future, based upon the idiotic scare that it's the road to totalitarianism (a scare that was used for Social Security, etc.)

If the Senator is going to hold up the future, at least people have a right to hear the reasoning out loud.

Let's make it clear, Ezra -- the letter from Snowe you link to does not take "direct aim" -- there is no reasoning in it that is worth the name.

Remember, Ben Nelson is a former insurance executive in a state where insurance is the second biggest industy-behind Big Ag-and they do contribute to his campaigns, so I wouldn't expect him to be enamored with insurance companies having to compete with the government.

Henceforth the fatwa should be we refer to these members of Senate as:

Chancellor Nelson and
Prime Minister Snowe.

I am giving a room for someone directly elected person called Obama to continue to hold his title - President.