Over the past week or so, I've been reading a lot about Obama's backing away from a single-payer plan, about Mad Baucus's antics, etc.  And feeling seriously let down.

Then, yesterday morning, Diane Rehm finally got around to bringing single-player into her ongoing health care conversation.  Here's one sad snippet:

Rehm:  So, Susan Dentzer, why is it that the president is saying that if he were starting from scratch he would move toward a single-payer system, but now the president and his allies are saying all options are on the table except for a single-payer plan?

 

Dentzer: Two primary reasons, I think, Diane.  One is, of course, ideological.  When Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, former senator, was campaigning for president, he was saying he would go around the country and mention single-payer, and the response he'd get would be that half the audience would say, "Terrific, let's get it tomorrow," and the rest of the audience would say, "I don't want the same people who rescued people after Hurricane Katrina--i.e. the government--providing my health insurance."  [They went to a break at this point.]

Depressing.  Just depressing.  That's #7, by the way--for those of you keeping tabs--from Tom Tomorrow's "Standard Conservative Responses to Health Care Reform.

David Sirota, I understand, has been making some noise in the streets about all this lately, most recently in his paper column, and I guess that helps.

But the sense I get is that we're pretty much out of luck and that it's all out of our hands now.

Anyone want to beckon me down from the ledge on this one?