The nail-biting, on-again-off-again procedural debate in Washington over health care reform is helping to mask a noteworthy fact: <\/p>\n
Most Americans want a public option — and most of their elected lawmakers want it, too.<\/p>\n
Popular support for a government-run alternative to corporate, for-profit insurance hovers currently around 53%. (During the heady, passionate debate, this number has dipped from 57%.)<\/p>\n
It now appears that at least 55 out of 100 US Senators — including all four Senators from New York and Vermont — support the public option, albeit one that would allow individual states to “opt out.”<\/p>\n
It’s also worth noting that these 55 Senators represent the American states with the vast majority of America’s population.<\/p>\n
Opponents of the bill within the Democratic Party include lawmakers from Arkansas, Louisiana, Nebraska and Montana. <\/p>\n
Taken together, they represent roughly 3% of the American people. (Lump in Independent Joe Lieberman and the percentage jumps to around 4%.)<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Democratic lawmakers from big, high population states (California, Illinois, New York, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania) where most of us actually live support the public option. <\/p>\n
Whether you favor or oppose government-managed insurance, it’s worth noting that once again the intensely undemocratic structure of the US Senate is skewing the national debate.<\/p>\n
The Senate gives hugely disproportionate power to lawmakers from states where very few people live — states that tend to be largely white and rural. <\/p>\n
What’s more, the Senate rules allows just a minority of those rural lawmakers to sustain filibusters that block debates and votes.<\/p>\n
In small-town America, the public option remains deeply unpopular, despite the fact that a disproportionate percentage of rural folks use publicly-funded insurance, including Medicaid, Medicare and VA services.<\/p>\n
“Homelander” opposition in the Senate is likely to be a chronic problem for Democrats pushing an ambitious agenda on everything from immigration reform to the repeal of don’t-ask-don’t-tell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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