TV Pug accidentally (?) explains opposition to Public Option

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

Fairly well-mannered pug flak on MSNBC debating public option with innocuous Dem on David Schuster show...

Dem says that nobody complains about public government run universities in Massachusetts competing with Harvard, and that most people are glad to have the public university option.

Pug replies: "The public option will be as poorly run as public schools and public swimming pools. Nobody will want to go there."

Okay, there is some reticence in certain quarters to frequent public swimming pools but not because they are poorly run.

Because they are open to the public! The dreadful public... those people who pee in the pool. People with communicable diseases. People of different ethnic backgrounds. (And it is assumed that private pools don't have any of that... exclusivity becomes a virtue for the simple sake of exclusivity.)

Public swimming pools is one hell of an example to use... it's pretty well known that a lot of cities spitefully shut down their public pool systems (sometimes for good) when they were forced to be integrated. (Public schools are also an on-point example. I used to live in a city that lost 100% of its swimming pools and about 50% of its public school system when integration came along.)

Yes, if everyone had health care you might find yourself in a waiting room with riff-raff.

Simple as that.

And it is, in the eyes of many, worth many people doing without health care to avoid such riff-raff mixing.

[depakid]

1. Truman's universal health care plan died because Southern Dixiecrats feared integration

of hospitals.

For some, not much has changed.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

5. thanks for the historical note -- makes sense

[BootinUp]

2. good observation. nt

[Mz Pip]

3. The Repugs aren't worried

that the Public Option will be a failure; they are worried it will be a success. That's why they are fighting it so hard. If it were a failure they would have something to run against but if it is successful,like public university and medicare then they are screwed.

[alsame]

4. Exactly. In 10-15 years it will be considered as essential as

Social Security or Medicare - and you know what happens when the GOP tries to mess with either of those programs.

If the Repubs lose this battle, they have lost the healthcare war.