As any good Persian rug dealer knows, you have to hold back a bargaining chit so that you can whip it out at the very end to tie down the sale. That’s how Obama is playing the so-called public option in his health care program. His plan seems to be to combine its abandonment with some form of tort reform and try to buy off some Republicans – maybe only Maine’s Olympia Snowe – to give moderate Democrats enough confidence in the veneer of bi-partisanship to win their backing for his bill.
But it’s a fraud and a trick.
Here’s why:
