I am running out of things to say about the health care reform process in Congress.  Like other supporters of single payer, the so-called public option already represents a big compromise, so when President Obama let Senator Baucus, a man in the pocket of the insurance industry, frame the Finance Committee Bill without even a public option, he slipped substantially in my estimation.  It will take a lot for him to redeem himself. 

Now that it suddenly looks as if it may have a slight chance of reappearing, he has his chance.  We wait for the President to send out a strong message, endorsing it.  This is no small thing, because it is one of the key reasons we elected him.  But, no, once more, in the name of Senator Olympia Snowe's vote, he prefers to dither (My god, is Cheney right?)  It is said that, in order to gain her support, he will support a public option with a trigger.  This is, frankly, the lamest excuse for presidential initiative that I have ever seen. But, I will admit that it opens up enormous new possibilities.  How about linking military escalation in Aghanistan to a trigger?  Like, if Olympia Snowe votes to legalize gay-marriage, or, better yet, becomes a relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox?

Or maybe the trigger for the public option should have nothing to do with Snowe.  How about we just say that the public option kicks in after 40,000 more people die because they don't have insurance?  A trigger isn't health-care reform.  It's Roy Rodgers' horse.  It's the device that fires a gun.  It's another name for murder.