From KWTX (don't forget Edwards has a regional town hall meeting tomorrow night at 6 in Cleburne.)

Have to pick this apart

Edwards was asked if the terms of the bill apply to members of Congress. He said.

I will not vote for a bill that exempts members of Congress from the provisions of this law

My question: Is it even in this bill? If it isn't explicitly addressed, will it APPLY to Congress? He really didn't answer that. The real question is, AFTER whatever health care provisions go through, will Congress also have the exact same health care?

On the public option.

Edwards said he has not made up his mind on whether the bill should include a government health insurance option, but said the goal of the measure should be to foster competition among insurance companies to drive down costs.

He said he would vote against the government option, however, if it were clear that it’s a backdoor to a single-payer system and he said he would not support any taxpayer subsidy for either a government-created or cooperative health insurance provider.

Then he's against the public option.

Amazingly, a number of people in this group don't want Medicare or Medicaid.

He was greeted with loud applause when he asked the audience if members would support getting rid of Medicare and Medicaid, but made it clear he disagrees with those that think those programs should be dissolved.

“I will not vote to privatize or get rid of Social Security,” he said.

“I will not vote to privatize or get rid of Medicare,” he said.

I agree with that. And of course the extension from that is that the government ALREADY RUNS a public health program.

He went on to talk about private-public partnerships and said that there's no hospital that could stay open today WITHOUT Medicaid and Medicare. REally? Isn't that a variation on the Too Big To Fail argument? If a hospital cannot stay open on its own without government welfare, then something seems wrong to me, UNLESS we go to the single payer system where everyone gets health care. I mean, we're already paying taxes for medicare and medicaid and apparently for stuff like earmarks that Chet Edwards and others get for hospitals. Why not take the step to take health care OFF THE LIST of things people have to worry about?