Question

Is it even worth pursuing health care "reform" if a public option is dead on arrival?

The long term fiscal health of the nation depends on reforming our health care system. Unfortunately it appears that the most obvious approach to achieve cost-containment is not poitically viable. I'm not sure how we achieve the ends that we need (significant cost reductions through broader coverage) if we don't have a way to combat the excesses of the private insurance market.

Is Tom Daschle playing the useful idiot here? Did he look at the roll George McGovern is playing in the EFCA debate and decide that was a role that he, Daschle, coveted?