Last Call

Maine Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe has declared the public option dead, and wants President Obama and the Democrats to simply drop the matter and move on.

Speaking to CBS News anchor Bob Schieffer on Sunday, Snowe suggested that President Barack Obama had shown "flexibility" on the key feature of his reform proposals during his State of the Union address on Wednesday,

She added: "It's universally opposed by all Republicans in the Senate, and therefore there's no way to pass a plan that includes the public option. So, I think it's recognizing that, because it is a roadblock to building the kind of consensus that we need. Even [Senate Finance Committee] Chairman [Max] Bauccus has indicated, no proposal could be passed in the Senate that includes it. So, it would be best to just move forward."

Among those Republicans is Rep. Lee Terry (R-NB), who told MSNBC on Sunday that a recent U.S. Treasury report claiming over half of all Americans will lose their health insurance over the next decade did not affect his resolute opposition to the public option.

Other Republicans, such as Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) and John Kyl (R-AZ), were quoted by The New York Times on Saturday arguing from varying perspectives that a public option is just an overstep too far.

Sen. Gregg said called it "a stalking horse for a single-payer plan," then switched his metaphor to, "more than the camel’s nose under the tent."

"It is the camel’s neck, and probably front legs, under the tent," he added. "There is no way the private sector will be able to compete."

Got that? Half of Americans will lose their insurance by 2020, meaning that we will have more uninsured Americans than insured ones in this country.

But there's not a single Republican who will vote for the public option in the Senate, Snowe says. Too worried about America's precious insurance companies. At least Snowe is finally being honest: there's not a single Republican in the Senate or the House for that matter who will vote for a real health-care reform bill. Not a one.

And we're too worried about the horrible "government takeover" of health care to worry about the corporate takeover of it.

If Obama does drop the public option, do you think Republicans are magically going to vote for the Democrats' plan? Anyone? No? Didn't think so.

No public option. No trigger mechanism. What they really want is no health care reform plan at all.