According to The Ledger, a Florida paper, Florida’s Democratic Senator Nelson doesn’t think there’ll be any public option in health insurance (Sen. Nelson: Health Care Reform to Pass, The Ledger, 08/31/09).

According to the article Nelson says the public option can’t get 60 votes to break a filibuster, and despite acknowledging nobody is talking about a government takeover of our nation’s health/medical care system “still any public option will not pass”.

And now for some real stupidity …

“A big part of (the bill) will be shoring up Medicare and Medicaid. We do not have a bill yet because the Senate does not have consensus. We tried all summer to get consensus,” he said.

That’s right … go back and read the above … Nelson the dumber is telling folks we can’t have a public option health insurance program because we need to shore up taxpayer funded health insurance programs.

Ahhh … the sweet, syrupy smell of political and personal stupidity.

PS. Here’s a way to a public option or even maybe single payer: in 2010 let the Democratic House members go down in flames. The White House will still be Democratic and so will the Senate (in name anyway) so there won’t be any real change from what we have now. Once the Democratic politicians see that progressive voters really mean it when they say “work on our agenda”, however, these same Dems will be ready to role their sleeves up to do the work of the American people.