Olympia had this to say about the Public Option -
In an Associated Press interview in Portland, Snowe said it would be unfair to include a government-run health insurance option that would take effect immediately.
"If you establish a public option at the forefront that goes head-to-head and competes with the private health insurance market ... the public option will have significant price advantages," she said.
So, let me get this straight: We don't want to be unfair to the insurance companies by providing a more affordable public option to the people.
Doesn't the fact that you feel a "Trigger" is needed tell you anything? If the insurance companies are so trust worthy, why put a trigger in at all or a public option for that matter? Oh that's right...
"I don't think we can entirely depend on the private insurance market to deliver. They haven't delivered thus far, and that's why we're in the predicament we're in today," she said.
So - what is it Olympia? Can we depend on the Insurance companies or not? You want to give them an umpteenth chance to prove they're service failures. You want to ignore that the "public option will have significant price advantages". You're continuing to subsidize and socially engineer a failed system by keeping a more efficient system out of the market place. That's not very Conservative of you, Olympia.
She then harps on the bipartisan meme and compromise.
Characterizing health care reform as the most (2)challenging and complex issue she has ever confronted, Snowe said she believes the Senate Finance Committee can produce a (3)bipartisan bill in which everyone has confidence, but (1)"everybody has to give a little."
- Everybody has to give a little - let's start with the insurance companies -
Premiums have gone up over the past six years by more than 87 percent, on average, while profits at ten of the largest publicly traded health insurance companies rose 428 percent from 2000 to 2007.
BTW, the public option is us giving a little. As a matter of fact, it's a hell of a lot.
- FYI Ms. Snowe - It's not complicated. It's actually very simple. Look at plans that have worked in other developed nations. You're just trying to please a handful of donors and please the majority of your constituents who want the opposite of your donors. You can't serve two masters.
- It already is bipartisan. If you don't count ELECTED Sell Outs in D.C. Read the polls. The people have spoken. Their health is in your hands. I suggest you and your silent partners be grateful for what you've been given already and ignore this "trigger" talk.
Quit yanking our chains. This junkyard dog aint gonna back down.
Tomorrow's Diary --Last week Washington State's Maria Cantwell was voted the Sexiest Senator. WOW I wonder what she had to do to get that title? Sell out to health insurance companies, perhaps?
As physically attractive as she may be, I'd take a Bernie Sanders/Kucinich sandwich over her everyday, these days, and twice on Sunday.