Leading Blue Dog suggests opening Medicare to uninsured

By GottaLaff

I am in the midst of a Scooby Doo "wha-a?" moment:

[Rep. Mike] Ross (D-Ark.), who had emerged as a leader among centrist Blue Dog Democrats opposing the public health insurance option, has suggested something his colleagues consider even more drastic – opening Medicare to those under 65 without insurance. [...]

"I — speaking only on behalf of myself — suggested one possible idea could be that instead of creating an entirely new government bureaucracy to administer a public option, Medicare could be offered as a choice," Ross said in a statement to The Hill.

A Blue Dog said that?

His statement went on to say that he does "not support a government-run public option" and he does "not endorse this idea" of opening up Medicare.

Um, okay. As for Henry Waxman, the Mustache of Justice:

"The idea of a public option was to provide competition, but opening up Medicare would be the precursor to single-payer," said House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.). "This may be an issue of semantics, but it would be very difficult to implement." [...]

Some colleagues suggested that the political heat may have pushed Ross to change position. But Ross said he hasn't changed his position, he is just proposing alternatives to keep the process moving.

Now back to the real story of the day: A kid named Falcon who didn't fall out of a balloon.