SURE, IT'S CRAPPIER CARE, BUT AT LEAST IT'S MORE EXPENSIVE...:

Public Option, RIP?: The Congressional Budget Office explains the perils of compromise and the limits of its own interest in health costs. (Timothy Noah, Oct. 30, 2009, Slate)

I've had a bad feeling since Tuesday that Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman's pledge to filibuster any variety of public option eliminated its chances of becoming law. Continuing recalcitrance from moderate Democrats didn't help, either. But I never figured that the final death blow would come from the Congressional Budget Office.

Here's the killer sentence, spotted by Politico's Carrie Budoff Brown on Page 6 of the CBO's analysis of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's "blended" House bill: "[A] public plan paying negotiated rates ... would typically have premiums that are somewhat higher [italics mine] than the average premiums for the private plans in the exchanges."