Dionne in WaPo for the lst of October uses the word timidity in describing the Dems on the public option for health care reform. The obvious parallels in education, Social Security, Medicare, clean water act should be driven home by this time...But the inertia remains, or is it simply opposition for the sake of it? BP

"The government is not a fair competitor," Grassley said. "It's a predator."

Grassley was then forced to explain how he felt about Medicare. Is it predatory for government to pay health bills for the elderly? Is Social Security, which lives side by side with private pension and savings plans, predatory? Is it predatory for government to regulate, well, predatory lenders or stock swindlers or bank boodlers?

Democrats have been far too timid in taking on the right wing's arguments against government. They have been defensive when they should be going on offense by insisting that government can expand human freedom and give people options they would not otherwise have.

Consider universal K-12 education, loans and grants to help students attend college, clean water systems, and unemployment compensation so people can get by while they look for the next job. A public insurance option lies squarely within this American tradition of using government to open new avenues of choice and opportunity.

The public option was voted down in the Finance Committee -- 15 to 8 on Rockefeller's strong version and 13 to 10 on Sen. Charles E. Schumer's compromise version. Sen. Max Baucus, the Finance Committee chairman, was in the odd position of saying that the public option was dandy ("There's a lot to like about a public option," he declared) but twice voting no because he believed too many other senators would vote no. I guess that's how leadership works in the Senate.

E.J. Dionne

WaPost 10-1-09