I WAS GOING TO DEFEND PRES. OBAMA...

for his reversal of his 2003 support for single-payer health insurance and then I read a little more:

On one end of the spectrum, there are some who've suggested scrapping our system of private insurance and replacing it with a government-run health care system. And though many other countries have such a system, in America it would be neither practical nor realistic.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are those, and this includes most Republicans in Congress, who believe the answer is to loosen regulations on the insurance industry -- whether it's state consumer protections or minimum standards for the kind of insurance they can sell. The argument is, is that that will somehow lower costs. I disagree with that approach. I'm concerned that this would only give the insurance industry even freer rein to raise premiums and deny care.

So I don't believe we should give government bureaucrats or insurance company bureaucrats more control over health care in America.

Had he said that there was too much opposition to single-payer, I could both agree with him and support his triangulation of the alternatives. As it is, he went out of his way to attack government employees.