TPM reports that Harry Reid is working the public option. One possible outcome of all of this health care wrangling, provided those reports are correct, is the creation of a public option despite the infinite well of objections of just the sort that can be seen in the comment section right here at the Ten Gallon Liberal.
I hope that happens, of course, because I support a public option. But I hope for that outcome as well because it provides an actual testing of all the prognostication and predictions. What I mean is, most of the objection here and elsewhere is based on blustering through predictions of the future as if certainty about such things was possible. The public option will end private health insurance, say, or on the other hand will provide everyone with a new car.
What will happen? We can guess, maybe even guess well, but we simply can't know until we try. Reformers are trying to address the question "How can we improve the system?" while opponents are saying "Change is bad." I think that's why the conversation never seems to connect–it's like boxers fighting in two different rings. If you get drawn in, only frustration results.
