The Most Unlikely Of Public Option Advocates

Republicans do love their populism at times (it goes back to the victim card they love to play whenever threatened) but there's a very unlikely champion of the populism angle of the public option on the Winger side this week: Bill-O!

Bill O’Reilly actually told a Heritage Foundation scholar who was fear-mongering government-backed health care that he favors a public option:

NINA OWCHARENKO: Well, it has massive new federal regulation. So you don’t necessarily need a public option if the federal government is going to control and regulate the type of health insurance that Americans can buy.

O’REILLY: But you know, I want that, Ms. Owcharenko. I want that. I want, not for personally for me, but for working Americans, to have a option, that if they don’t like their health insurance, if it’s too expensive, they can’t afford it, if the government can cobble together a cheaper insurance policy that gives the same benefits, I see that as a plus for the folks.

Amazing. O'Reilly makes a great argument for the public option as something working class Americans need in these economic times, an affordable insurance plan that Americans can choose if they want to make the switch...something public that anyone can join, and something that's an option. Amazing how that works.

Why the change of heart, Bill-O? Could it be that those polls showing three-quarters of Americans, both conservative and liberal, find exactly what O'Reilly described to be as something the federal government SHOULD be doing? It's a fair bet that a lot of those Americans who want a public option are O'Reilly Factor viewers, and aren't buying the whole "Government health care is evil" line because they know plenty of people who are on Medicare, Medicaid, or get care through the VA.

Welcome to the fight, sir. We could have used you six months ago.