Don't forget the Indian Health Service, which states on its website:

"The IHS provides a comprehensive health service delivery system for approximately 1.9 million American Indians and Alaska Natives who belong to 562 federally recognized tribes in 35 states."

As delivered in Alaska, IHS health care is quite good and there is a strong focus on healthy lifestyles and prevention of disease/disorders.

The GOP has apparently decided that its only contribution to our discourse will be to repeat the same old lies as long as anyone is willing to listen.

It's time for the media to stop listening unless and until the Republicans come up with something useful to say.

How many more polls would it take to convince congressional Republicans that the American people have made it clear they want a public option?

What makes you think Republicans care about the American people?

Can you cite any evidence for this?

"Boehner is the latest conservative to see all kinds of polling data showing a strong public demand for public-private competition, and pretend that it simply doesn't exist."

They're not playing to the American public, they're playing strictly to their tea-bagging base. For them truth is only what they want to hear, or need to hear to support their position. They know Boehner is lying, but without the lie their position collapses...so the lie is embraced.

From this moment forward, a vote for Republican candidates in any campaign USA is a vote for jibberish-speaking fools!

Elected representatives, I imagine, are elected to represent the citizens of America, not their corporate overlords as Boehner's rhetoric would suggest! -Kevo

Quick. Stop the presses. Just in. Breaking news. Now get this:

The republicans are lying about health care reform!!!!

Who woulda thunk it?

How many more polls would it take to convince congressional Republicans that the American people have made it clear they want a public option?

Ever hear of an asymptotic curve?

Every day is Opposite Day in their world.

It's the same sort of reasoning as "Bush and Cheney kept us safe after 9/11." 100% of everyone other than the 70% who support a public option are dead-set against a government takeover.

I hope this has been helpful...

This just in via email from my Congressman, Republican Ted (formerly known as "the hanging judge" which is saying a lot, given this is Texas) Poe.. "The so-called “public option,” that’s really a “public mandate,” will penalize individuals and small business by taxing them into submission. And like before, it’s more of the same job-killing employer mandates, budget-busting entitlement expansions, and countless provisions that put bureaucrats between you and your doctor." One of his poll questions, "Do you believe taxes should be raised to implement a new healthcare plan?"

He does list what he's in favor of, namely,

• eliminating fraud and waste in Medicare and Medicaid;
• patients and small businesses should be allowed to pool together to obtain a better health insurance rate;
• remove restrictions barring insurance sales across state lines;
• provide tax incentives, rather than increase taxes;
• encourage health savings plans to allow people the opportunity to provide for themselves;
• close all loopholes that allow costly coverage for those illegally in our country;
• provisions for pre-existing conditions and a safety-net for catastrophic illnesses and the working poor.

I'm very interested in that last one, the "Safety-net for catastrophic illnesses and the working poor." Isn't *that the public option??? If not, what is it?

Notably absent are any reforms directed at the insurance industry, with the exception of "provisions for pre-existing conditions".

Suggestion for media: present the generally-agreed upon/well-known problems with our current system, then boil down the proposed solutions/talking points from both sides. (See bullets above for Republicans.) Discuss the merits, feasibility and factual background of each. Please, this is not impossible.

So Boner would deny sick, bankrupted Americans the option of health care comparable to members of Congress, veterans, poor people on Medicaid, seniors on Medicare and Native Americans.

Why does Boner hate Americans who don't already get government health care and can't afford/don't qualify for private coverage? I bet there are lots of them in his own district.

Boner appears to operate in an evidence-free state of mind where facts and contradictions don't matter like they do in the real world where the rest of us live.

generic GOP bumper sticker:

the "American people" have "made it clear"--------

Fill in the blank with your choice of words. (spelling optional). . .

What I REALLY like is when you write to these guys you get a polite little missive that says 'Sorry you aren't from Ohio' or whereever and we are REALLY busy listening to our constituents...REALLY? Joe Leiberman told ME to go talk to MY senators, he was working for CT. I told HIM, my senators are RELIABLY blue.

"Boehner is the latest conservative to see all kinds of polling data showing a strong public demand for public-private competition, and pretend that it simply doesn't exist."

It's the Sergeant Schultz defense:

"I SEE NOTHING !"

I assume Boehner's data comes from having surveyed people attending tea party protests.

"I'll look forward to Boehner's press release calling for the elimination of Medicare, Medicaid, the V.A. system, and S-CHIP."

None, absolutely none, of these programs can deliver services into the very short term future without devouring middle-class assets via tax increases ad infinitum.

No amount of fantasy crap coming from Dems can change that.

The lib argument above is not even addressing the issue -- its just MSNBC BS.

When in the HELL will the Donkeys make their case as simply as Steve does? That party is a message disaster. When WILL they ever learn? They simply must make the GOP's lack of ANY alternative plan the subject of every conversation they have. And they must consistently label the GOP as the "obstructionist party of NO; NO plan and NO ideas."

"None...of these programs can deliver services...without devouring middle-class assets via tax increases ad infinitum." tao9 @ 6:15 PM.
Fine, then we'll start increasing the tax rates on the top 5% incomes. Problem solved. That wasn't hard, now was it?
And I'd be very cautious about labeling Democratic statements as "crap"; epecially when all the GOP statements range from the ridiculous to the insane.

"Either they're lying, or"

There's an OR?

I theenk the american public is waking up to de fact that duh GOP stands for Greedy Ol' Party.

As in the party's over, folks. Adults are now in control in DC.

Man, the Boner sure likes to drop bills, with a thud, onto podiums. What a joke.

How many more polls would it take to convince congressional Republicans that the American people have made it clear they want a public option? _ Steve Benen

Ain't no number high enough...

"So Boner would deny sick, bankrupted Americans the option of health care comparable to members of Congress, veterans, poor people on Medicaid, seniors on Medicare and Native Americans."

That's because Boner and the GOP have made it a debate not about socialized medicine but about which groups deserve socialized medicine and which one don't.

The "government takeover" line of course comes from Frank Luntz's memo in which he talks about how to kill health care which Politico published on their site earlier this year.

If the DNC/White House wanted to push this bill over the finish line they would take their "Call Em Out" Youtube operation to the next level and round up all the clips of Republicans using Frank Luntz's terminology in interview after interview and put up about a minute or so add which shows excerpts of the memo and then Republicans following it to a tee. It would totally discredit them and if the DNC/White House sent out a press release with the video then it would compel at least a few journalists to question Republicans when they start using that bogus language.

At least that is what I would do...

silly progressives - you keep thinking that Americans are just people. Remember, the SCOTUS considers corporations as having rights, the same as people. So to republicans, that insurance companies - their "American people" have made it clear they don't want a public option, they're not lying.

Ah, the old 2,000 pages of bill trick.

Some D should bring in 15,000 pages of Linux kernel source code printout and say "See this? this is about half of what it takes to run a cellphone."