@Zero G, thanks for the Chomsky article and clip from it. Always enjoy Chomsky.

Chomsky: Health bill sustains the system’s core ills
http://rawstory.com/2010/03/noam-chomsky-health-bill/
[...]
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor added that it’s a damning referendum on American democracy that one of the most highly supported components of the effort nationally, the public insurance option, was jettisoned. He partly blamed the media for refusing to stress how favorably it’s viewed by the populace.

"It didn't have 'political support,' just the support of the majority of the population," Chomsky quipped, "which apparently is not political support in our dysfunctional democracy."

The provision has consistently polled well, garnering the support of sixty percent of Americans across the nation in a CBS/New York Times poll released in December, days after it was eliminated from the reform package. Democratic leaders deemed it politically untenable.

"There should be headlines explaining why, for decades, what's been called politically impossible is what most of the public has wanted," Chomsky said. "There should be headlines explaining what that means about the political system and the media."

Well, he does say that he'd of held his nose and passed it, but the dysfunction of our system is out for all to see.

For myself, watching Democrats straining their arms (and credulity) to pat themselves on the back, I think back to the single-payer advocates being arrested in Max Baucus' committee, being shut out of the White House forums and the Blair House summit.

Democracy Hogwash - At Least We Have Clean Pigs...

Brandon Voice SPAMs all liberal talkers . . . One of his two ‘entrepreneurial’
companies he ‘runs’ buggers liberal talkers and bloggers for cash . . .

@Mysterious Floating Head: "Sooth"? as in For Sooth?

Now omg NOW Thom tells us the deal that kept public anything and real reform off the table in the health care debate. Of course we knew that all along.
For a year we have heard that we can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
All along it has been the [pre-defined] 'Possible' that is the enemy of the good.

The healthy have always taken care of the sick both by direct care and by paying for insurance and not using it. There is understandable anger with the current system where people have to pay twice - once to the government for the sick, poor, young and old and again to a private insurance company for themselves and their family. The Congress is on its way to passing a mandate that we buy for-profit insurance (tithe to Mammon) while avoiding either any public option or Medicare expansion (share and share alike). Yet the Democrats sound like they passed Medicare for all.

The camel that puts its nose under the tent gets kicked in the face.
Prepare for months of ads about personal mandates on everyone, unfunded mandates on the states, IRS agents and years of premium hikes. If the Democrats lose a bunch of seats it is their fault for compromising core principles and not making it clear that the right to life is fundamental to all other rights.

Clearly, we have government of the people by the government for the corporations. Hope and Change we can believe in has come to waiting for Republican attorneys general to successfully convince the corporate dominated courts to throw out this nameless mess to make room for a public solution. Stranger things have happened but don't hold your breath because... Clearly, we have government of the people by the government for the corporations.

@Nels ... and even MORE for Medicare for all ... :)

BAD JOKE ALERT (If you are likely to take offense, DON'T READ THIS!) -

Does this mean that we can finally kill grandma?

(I warned you, didn't I?)

So 36 Republican States plan on a Constitutional Challenges to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and associated Reconciliation. We can only hope. Maybe President Obama is playing a game of Chess game on a scale not easily apparent to most. It could explain why the Public Option and Single Payer were never on the table in any of the negotiations.

I think we need Republicans to challenge requirements to purchase PRIVATE insurance under penalty of law. Follow the Argument to The Supreme Court:

Republican State Solicitor: It is not Constitutional to require people to buy any product, especially health insurance from a corporation. The government is in fringing on their rights and freedoms.

Solicitor General: May it please the court, but these states have a statutory requirement for people to purchase minimum Automobile Insurance Coverage in order to renew their drivers licenses and renew their vehicle registrations. Why would this be any different?

Republican State Solicitor: It is different because driving is a privilege. Cars are not necessary to life liberty or the pursuit of happiness. Owning and driving a car is not a right specifically protected by the Constitution.

Solicitor General: Your honors, to me it appears that my opponent is arguing that access Health care is a basic right guaranteed by the Constitution. If you rule in their favor, then you must also rule that every expectant mother has a constitutional right to pre-natal care and every new born has a constitutional right to neo-natal care, no matter what pre-existing conditions may have occurred at birth. You most also rule that a 20 year old diabetic has the right to medical treatment and a 50 year old who contracts cancer must be guaranteed life saving treatment. I am not sure that is in the capacity of private insurance companies. The only practical and economic means for protecting their constitutional rights it to have the largest risk pool possible. This risk pool most necessarily then consist of every American Citizen, for that would spread the risk among the larges possible base. By your ruling in my opponents favor, you would in effect decree that the Government MUST operate single payer basic health insurance system in order to protect it’s citizens Constitutional Rights.

Note:Let the right-to-life Supreme Court Republicans of the United States (SCROTUS) rule that a fetus does not have a Constitutional Right to be born healthy and that premature babies, diabetics and cancer patients do not have the right to life saving medical care.

@harry ashburn - only one problem with that ... my wife (bless her) is not a big SHOPPING fan, either.

The Health Care legislation is more about politics than health care. The battle is not over. The final battle has yet to be fought. When Alito, Roberts, Kennedy , Scalia, and Thomas enter the fight we'll be watching the battle to see who controls the country; the President or the Supremes.

re: waterloo

Let's make this health care victory the REPUBLICAN'S waterloo. Sure the bill is not perfect and it benefits the insurance companies and it is nowhere near the public option or single payer system that we want.

The tea baggers labeled this "OBAMACARE", a term they thought was degrading and would frighten people. We should not run away from this, but embrace it.

We should all call it OBAMACARE from this day forward, and hope that it becomes as important to America as Medicare and Social Security. Remind people every day how the Democrats fought to pass OBAMACARE without the support of one single Republican. Run with this and carry it proudly into the upcoming elections against the Republicans and let it be their downfall.