
Columnist.
The current debate over whether the national health care plan being developed in Congress should or should not include a so-called "public option" -- a health insurance plan set up by the government to compete with private health insurance providers -- misses the point. In reality, the entirety of the congressional health care plan is a "public option." It is all about one thing: putting government in control of health care.
It was Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009. Congress was planning to vote the next day on a so-called "stimulus" bill anticipated to cost $787 billion. The final text of the bill had not been published, so no one knew exactly what it would authorize the government to do. Ryan Byrnes and Edwin Mora of CNSNews.com went to the Capitol that day to ask representatives and senators a simple question: Would they read the final text of the stimulus bill in its entirety before voting on it?