A Poo Sandwich with Mustard Is Still A Poo Sandwich

So the bill I am supposed to get excited about has a gutted exchange, weak subsidies, a conditional buy-in to Medicare for those 55 year old and older, a triggered co-op and an individual mandate. Whoop-de-fricking-doo. Um, maybe there's something I don't understand, but how is this sensible even from a strictly partisan perspective? Setting aside the question of cost controls, how does it make sense for a political party whose emerging base is 30-somethings to force young people to buy expensive private insurance? This "reform" is a piece of garbage whose sole purpose is to give Obama the opportunity to claim a "win." Tell me Barry, how big a win will it be when the Democrats lose Congress next year and the teabaggers take over?

Now there are good things in the bill, no question. If there weren't a mandate, perhaps I could be persuaded to support it. But if we're going to force people to buy insurance, I sure as hell want a guarantee that they'll have a cheap alternative to selling their souls to AETNA or whoever. By objection from the start to this kind of plan - back to its Massachusetts progenitor, was that the subsidies would never be enough to prevent a mandate from becoming a burden. And here we are.

What infuriates me most of all is how predictable this has all been. We knew ages ago that Republicans would filibuster and that Nelson, Landrieu, Lieberman, and Lincoln would never be willing to alienate insurance companies. But no, no reconciliation was off the table, and let's not even discuss the possibility of breaking the filibuster! Gosh no, it might be considered rude!

10% unemployment. An expanded war in Afghanistan. A weak health care bill. No action on climate change. Yeah, this is the change I was hoping for.