You can deny all you want, claiming AP isn't a credible source, but at least two other news outlets have the same story. People are talking.
From CNN
Two Democratic sources said that the deal includes proposals to replace the public option by creating a not-for-profit private insurance option overseen by the federal Office of Personnel Management, much like the current health plan for federal workers, and another allowing people 55 and older to buy into Medicare coverage that currently is available to those 65 and older.
And the clincher
Two senators who oppose a public option, moderate Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine and independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, said they were open to the nonprofit private alternative to a public option.
"It can be an innovative approach," said Snowe, considered to be perhaps the lone GOP senator who might support the health care bill. "I just would need to understand more about how it would work."
Lieberman, a member of the Democratic caucus who said he would join a Republican filibuster if the health care bill contains a public option, called the alternative "an idea worth considering, so long as it remains private insurance companies that would be essentially regulated by OPM."
So they would rather have a quasi public option, which is the word game Reid is hinting at, through private insurance, highly regulated, than a new government run agency. This is absolute confirmation of the thesis of this diary.
End of UPDATE
So yes, Wall Street won again.
You know that's who's behind the insurance companies don't you? The same people who are behind the scams and ponzi schemes that your leaders just paid off with your grandchildren's money. Wall Street bankers.
That's who won tonight. And before you succumb to partisan bullshit and ridiculous flame wars over who's really at fault and what to do about it, and how Ralph Nader is the real enemy of all enemies, let me explain to you what really happened tonight, what Wall Street really was fighting against, and what they really won.
For almost forty years now a campaign has been waged. It started back in the late sixties and culminated during the 1980 presidential campaign of Ronald Reagan. That campaign has sought to achieve one primary goal.
A most radical, most un-American of goals: to weaken as much as possible the power of the people as embodied by the constitution in our government of, by and for the people.
I shit you not. That's what these bastards have been up to for for freakin decades now. By bastards I mean the titans of industry and the lords of finance, acting through their agents, the Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable,the American Enterprise Institute, and other business lobbies (not to mention their army of media whores who do their bidding daily on television, in newspapers, and on blogs).
They figured out that the greatest threat to big business and their very big profits is none other than our democratic means of government. And what did they do? They spent billions of dollars on a massive campaign to make our government of the people, incredibly, the enemy of the people.
Think about that. It's pretty ingenious. We're supposed to have this government of the people thing, and there's Ronald Reagan, the freakin presidential candidate, saying that our government of the people is "the problem."
And the fucking people voted him in. Teh stupid, it burns indeed.
Make no mistake. This wasn't just a different political philosophy. It was war. On you, and this country, and everything our forefathers fought and died for.
And it is that same war that defeated the public option tonight. What absolutely can not be allowed is the creation of another agency that can demonstrate that government can do good.
The thing to understand is that the war on government, which is really a war on democracy itself, is more important than any specific policy or even than short term profit.
This was why nationalizing the banks was always off the table. Nationalizing anything is off the table. The people must not be allowed to see the power and good of their own government again. Otherwise, they would demand that their government do what it was designed to do: fix things, solve problems, and help organize social systems that help benefit all Americans.
Right now, as much as 30% of the American population sees our government as the enemy. Many more do not trust it to handle health insurance despite the fact that it is TEN TIMES more efficient than private insurance.
You have to see it in historical terms to fully appreciate it. Our democratic government of the people has been one of the greatest instruments of social justice in the history of mankind. And as such, it has been the greatest enemy to despotism and oppression.
But alas, the people were stupid and were tricked into squandering this great gift, and betraying their country, their people, and themselves.
Ingenious.