The American Spectator

Print Email

Text Size

The Spectacle Blog

Last month, Bill Kristol drew fire from President Obama and his liberal allies for urging Republicans to kill current health care legislation and start all over. But on Keith Olbermann's show last night, Markos Moulitsas, founder of the influential liberal website DailyKos, said progressives should be the ones to go for the kill if final legislation does not include a government-run plan.

“If they kill the public option and all we get is some insurance mandates, then I think it’s up to progressives to kill it, and then try again in two years after we get a new Congress,”  Moulitsas said.

So in other words, when conservatives argue against rushing to pass what they believe to be a bad bill, they are branded as being anti-reform in general, are accused delaying help to millions of uninsured, and are told that we can't wait any longer. But if liberals don't get what they want, it's perfectly okay to scrap health care legislation and defer action for another two years.

Meanwhile, Moulitsas all but admitted that the government-run plan, or so-called "public option," would move us toward a single-payer system over time.

“Now the best option may be off the table, but if we get a good solid public option, that’s something we can expand in further years, and this is why insurance companies and conservatives are trying to kill it, because they don’t want further expansion of this program, which I think could happen,” he said.

Video here, relevant part begins around the 4:50 mark.