While the Blue Dogs are busy hiding from their own shadows, the Progressive Caucus has revived the public option.  So much so that my Congress critter, Speaker Pelosi, now says that she cannot pass a health care reform bill without a public option: (h/t dKos):

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she won’t be able to pass health-care legislation in her chamber if the measure doesn’t include a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers.

“There’s no way I can pass a bill in the House of Representatives without a public option,” Pelosi, a California Democrat, said at a press conference in San Francisco today.  (Bloomberg 8/20/09)

As mcjoan points out, this is all part of the gamesmanship of the Congressional legislative process. Pelosi is pushing back to the left.

Meanwhile, the “Gang of 6” is dysfunctional as always.  Why just today, Sen. Enzi (R-WY) told the American people that MediCare was a bureaucratic nightmare, far worse than those benevolent bureaucrats from the insurance companies.

“For millions of Americans, the government-run plan would turn into a bureaucratic nightmare,” Enzi wrote in a USA Today opinion piece yesterday. “In the finance committee, six of us leading the negotiations are working from the premise that there will not be a government-run plan.”

Never mind those profits you see reported to Wall Street. Those are good for the country, and if we work hard enough we can take down Canada’s system too.