He hasn't lost.
Here's the deal.
He's lost an option. He hasn't lost the war.
Barack Obama conceding the public option to salvage some option… any option… on reviving his tattered health-care reform.
Do not assume he's scrambling, or that health care is dead.
He isn't. And it isn't.
History proves it, because hard as it may be to believe now, when Medicare debuted 44 years ago, it was seen by some as a disappointment. Not nearly as sweeping as its original designers had hoped, or even as Lyndon Johnson had planned. or as all-inclusive as liberals at the time had dreamed.
What's more, its $65 million first-year budget was deemed barely enough to cover its bare bones' goals.
That was then.
This is Medicare now. a $400 billion budget. and $5 trillion in benefits handed out.
Not too shabby for a bureaucratic disappointment.
Lesson learned.
Big-government advocates have a habit of feigning disappointment when their big government goals are tamed. They aren't that dumb. But we are.
Here's why. Once a bureaucracy starts. It can't be stopped. It can only grow.
Medicare proves it.
Because once a bureaucrat's in the door, he has a habit of staying.
Sort of like that unwanted guest who won't leave. and to add insult to injury, stays later than any other guest, then parks himself on your couch and orders pay-per-view movies after you've long gone to sleep.
That was Medicare then. this health-care reform now.
Trust me, taking the public option out now doesn't remove it later. and forming these health cooperatives now doesn't mean they don't evolve into something amazingly government-like later.
This is about striking a deal…any deal…to get in the door.
Because once in, the government ain't leaving.
I hope you've ordered extra food.
I hear he's hungry.
Cavuto: Now it’s Chuck Grassley’s TurnTwo tax plans would take a big bite from the rich
