Ezra(viaSteve):

"Quite frankly" Sen. Bernie Sanders said today "we don't have the votes for single payer." That's not much of a surprise but Sanders did outline another strategy for single payer that some liberals might want to think about. "Right now" he explained "we have language in the bill that says that states that want to go forward with single payer can do that." He's talking about the Waiver for State Innovation which allows states to go their own stray if they have a plan that will achieve the goals of the bill at a lower cost. You could imagine a state -- say California where the legislature has passed single-payer bills before only to see them vetoed by the governor -- using that provision to implement a single-payer system.

Really have people not readthe actual bill?

My emphasis added to help the illiterate.

Really I have consistently agreed with Bernie's premise that it will be a state-based island-hopping campaign to get single-payer. The problem with the current bill is that Section 1332 looms larger than the Pacific Ocean.

How convenient that the waiver is available three years after the exchanges are implemented. How convenient that it is available the year after a presumed (and in my mind decreasingly-likely) second Obama term.

So much for that fierce urgency of now I heard so much about in 2008...

ntodd