The Senate Health Care Reform Bill: Incremental Gain or Poison Pill?

The title question was recently asked on one of the e-mail discussion forums I belong to.  This is a wise question, which recognizes that the Senate Health-Care Bill is much less than savvy Americans have been demanding, namely, a full-blown single-payer system.  So, it is being aggressively opposed by many progressive Democrats, who see so little positive reform and so much given away the the health-insurance industry that they regard it to be a "poison pill."  Yet, it is being vehemently opposed by the Republican right, who assert (basically by bald-faced lies) that it is "socialized medicine" that would put government bureaucrats in charge of deciding who your doctors will be and even running "death panels." 

The only reliable balancing of the pros and cons of this bill that I am aware of is that of Paul Krugman.

I have to trust Krugman.  While I am certain he's muzzled when it comes to writing about things like rampant election theft in the U.S. -- or 9/11 being an inside job -- I sincerely believe he stands behind every word he is permitted to publish in his column.  And he is perhaps the most credible single expert in the country on both economic issues (where he is a Nobelist) and anything else he spends enough time studying to write a column on.  So read Krugman's make on the Health Care bill and decide for yourself.

And regarding the right-wing-nut opposition in the Senate, I highly recommend that you watch the stirring speech by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), which lasts only 15 minutes out of the total 10 1/2 hour Senate session, beginning at minute 107.  But, rather than playing the entire session below, you should be able to directly access Senator Whitehouse's speech here.

Post Script: Well, I actually trust Senator Bernie Sanders about as much as I do Paul Krugman, and as it turns out Senator Sanders appears to be on the same page.