This is encouraging news - at least, until Joe Lieberman and Olympia Snowe decide they don't like it. But if the House Dems pull this off -- national exchange, repeal of the anti-trust exemption and higher subsidies, they might actually come up with a decent plan:

WASHINGTON -- The White House wants to include a national health-insurance exchange in the health bill, which would give House Democrats one of their top remaining demands, according to an official involved in the discussions.

At issue is who would run the new insurance exchanges that would allow consumers to comparison-shop for health coverage. The House's version of the health overhaul calls for the federal government to run a single, national exchange, while the Senate's version would let states run their own exchanges.

President Barack Obama has told House Democrats that he intends to use the Senate bill as the framework for the final legislation. But the administration is pushing for a handful of House-backed provisions, including the federally run exchange, according to the official.

[...] Proponents of a federal exchange say state exchanges could have too few enrollees to function well, or might have enrollees who on average are too sick. Those who favor state exchanges say they would allow for more flexible regulation than one-size-fits-all standards set in Washington.

The White House also is working to increase the amount of the proposed subsidies that would help offset the cost of buying insurance for lower earners. The administration wants to bring them closer to the House levels, and is exploring with lawmakers how to do that while keeping the price tag around $900 billion over a decade, the target set by Mr. Obama.

House leaders are urging the White House to support repealing a decades-old federal antitrust exemption for the insurance industry that is part of its bill but isn't in the Senate's version. Rep. Louise M. Slaughter (D., N.Y.), chairwoman of the House Committee on Rules, said Mr. Obama showed openness to the idea in conversations with House leaders.

Insurers say they are already heavily regulated by states, where antitrust laws mirror federal rules prohibiting price-fixing and collusion.

Well yes, insurers are nominally regulated by states, but for some odd reason, no one ever seems to enforce them. Hmm...

The Bush years are certainly the gift that keeps on giving, aren't they? All those people who had jobs with what they thought was a secure future are all going to be scraping by on Social Security. Oh, and I just read that one of the largest long-term care insurers is about to collapse. Sure would be nice if FDR was around - maybe he could dream up some real solutions, like national health insurance...

The financial crisis has blown a hole in the rosy forecasts of pension funds that cover teachers, police officers and other government employees, casting into doubt as never before whether these public systems will be able to keep their promises to future generations of retirees.

The upheaval on Wall Street has deluged public pension systems with losses that government officials and consultants increasingly say are insurmountable unless pension managers fundamentally rethink how they pay out benefits or make money or both.

Within 15 years, public systems on average will have less than half the money they need to pay pension benefits, according to an analysis by Pricewaterhouse Coopers. Other analysts say funding levels could hit that low within a decade.

After losing about $1 trillion in the markets, state and local governments are facing a devil's choice: Either slash retirement benefits or pursue high-return investments that come with high risk.

The urgent need for outsize returns by these vast public pension funds, which must hit high investment targets year after year to keep pace with rising retirement costs, is in turn fueling a renewed appetite for risk on Wall Street.

Before the crisis, many public pension funds had experimented with risky trading techniques or committed more of their money to hedge funds and other nontraditional firms, which in turn invested some of it in complex mortgage securities. When these melted down, pension funds got burned.

Now, facing an even bigger funding gap, some systems are investing in the same securities, betting that a rebound in their value will generate huge returns.

"The amount that needs to be made up is enormous," said Peter Austin, executive director of BNY Mellon Pension Services. "Frankly, they are forced to continue their allocation in these high-return asset classes because that's their only hope."

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The man who was almost part of Obama's cabinet is now a big opponent in the health care reform debate. I wish I knew what President Obama was thinking when he selected this man, but like all good conservatives he too doesn't let facts influence his position.

There was a new poll done by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation which asked doctors how they feel about the public option. A whopping 63 percent of physicians support a health reform proposal that includes both a public option and traditional private insurance. Andrea Mitchell asked Gregg about this new poll and here's what he had to say.

Andrea:...at the same time there's a new poll, let me share with you from the new England Journal of Medicine today and 63% of American doctors polled say the public option should be at least available. That's 63% to 27% supporting the public option. Don't doctors know best?

Gregg: Yeah, well I think if the follow up question was asked, do you as a doctor want to work for the government. Do you as a doctor want to have yourself and your basic delivery of medicine be controlled by a federal bureaucrat? The answer would probably be 80% no. The fact is a public option is a stalking horse for a national health insurance...

The idiot known as Judd Gregg assumes that doctors haven't considered what it would be like to deal with the government and pulls information out of his ass to try and dismiss this vital poll and attack the public option. Andrea didn't push him on it after his non-answer, but she put it out there to him and he does what conservatives do.

This poll is surprisingly honest because the AMA stands against the public option, but doctors know what it's like to deal with the health insurance industry. Gregg knows this so he makes up his own poll questions and then answers it and gives us the percentage. he should start his own polling company.

My doctor already will not accept any form of private insurance because they block him from performing his craft. Since the Villagers are using polling as a weapon against health care reform, this poll should be high on their radar and the American people should be told. I wonder how many times it will make it on FOX News....

President Obama has new and powerful information known to insist that a public option be included in health care reform. As Andrea said: "Don't doctors know best?"

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It didn't take long for the Villagers to fall in line, did it? Reality has no meaning. I'm not sure why Rush Limbaugh is getting nervous about the astroturfers. He's saying the teabagger protests are not bought and paid for: "It's not ginned up, it's genuine. It's real." Can't he see that they are falling right in line? Matthews certainly has.

Digby: The Village Idiots Fall In Line

And here's the way the overarching media narrative that supports it gets set:

Matthews: What do you make of this firestorm that's going on across the country. We've got pictures from Texas and Long Island and Philly. Every time a congressman calls a town meeting now, the people show up and it's like -- I don't know --- it's like Iran! It's like the streets of Tehran!

Michael Smerconish: People are hot. I sense it in the phone calls that I get every day. I think they're very nervous about what's going to come out of this debate about national health care, and Chris if I've heard once in the last couple of days, I've heard it 50 times: "if they can't get cash for clunkers straight, what in the world are they going to do with my national health insurance?"

Matthews: You mean they won't get the numbers right?

Smericonish: Yeah they won't get the numbers right and it smacks of bureaucratic ineptitude, that the federal government has blown through this money so quickly on a plan that seems so straighforward.

I also think that what going on is that many people don't understand the elements of this debate, so what do they know? They know that they have health insurance and they know that this enormous price tag is being assigned for the 45 million or so who don't have it. And frankly what they saying is, why can't we just write them a check and pay for it. It sounds like it could be less expensive.

Ok, neither Smericonish, a conservative, or Matthews, a Village dullard, mention that the "riots" are not exactly spontaneous uprisings, but are rather the result of well-financed astroturfing enterprises, much like the ones that were done to disrupt the Clinton rallies back in 1994. (In fact, the threat of violence was so great that they ended up cancelling them, which is something we may yet see this month.) Matthews who prides himself on being an historian of arcane political strategy throughout the ages seems to know nothing of what's happenening now or then.

Meanwhile, he lets Smerconish disseminate this summers "drill, baby, drill" --- that insipid "cash for clunkers" line that Jim Demint cloddishly threw out there on the Sabbath Gasbag shows --- with no explanation as to why it makes no sense at all. (After all, the program proved to be so popular that they need to extend it -- that's usually thought of as a success, not a failure. Everywhere but in the village, that is.)..read on

It goes on. Surely Jonathan Martin of the Politico will straighten all this out, right?

And as A.B. Stoddard tells us, it doesn't matter if these events are shams because the media will just transmit them along to the public, unfiltered.

Here's Lawrence O'Donnell sitting in for Ed Schultz:

O'Donnell: AB, does it matter if these protests are organized or spontaneous? I mean, isn't it true that it's just the video that ends up on the local news that does the damage here?

AB Stoddard: It doesn't matter at all, and the fact is that the only goal for the Republicans right now is to scare people off this, to depress voter support for this so that when they come back in September it's even harder for the Democratic Party than the chaoes we just just witnessed on capitol Hill this month. All they have to do is just say, "this is going to be terrifying, this is a risky experiment." They don't have to be constructive right now. Remember who turns out in mid-term elections: the angry, ok? African Americans are not going to turn out at the rate they did last year and neither are young people. The people who carried marginal Democrats in in formerly Republican districts .. . It's going to be a very tough year for Democrats.

There you have it. The future is foretold. Journamalism isn't there to give the facts or tell the truth. It doesn't matter anyway, because "it's out there."

The only responsibility journos have is to to get it out there, dog.

(Please send me your videos of any town halls you go to at crooksandliarsvideos@gmail.com)