President Obama needs to take a more forceful stand and rein in his Chief of Staff and stop pandering to the big insurance sellouts like Lieberman; Harry Reid and some other members of Congress are trying to fight for the public option and Reid needs to be encouraged to stand up for the citizens of this country by going to reconciliation. Instead, Rahm Emanuel is putting pressure on him to cave in to Joe Lieberman who is determined to sabotage any real reform. There is no health care reform without the public option; absent it, this bill is a trillion-dollar giveaway to the insurance industry in the form of a mandate and will bankrupt the middle class. In addition, this mandate is likely unconstitutional, as it would require citizens to buy a private industry product, a concept that seems legally insupportable. In the meantime, the big insurers are thrilled with Obama’s capitulation on these two crucial issues and their stocks are going up on Wall Street in anticipation of all the new conscripted customers the mandate will create.

NO PUBLIC OPTION, NO MANDATE!