Last Sunday, Robert Reich wrote a fine analysis of the 11th Circuit decision ruling that the "individual mandate" is unconstitutional:

"Had the President and the Democrats stuck to their guns during the health-care debate and insisted on Medicare for all, or at least a public option, they wouldn’t now be facing the possible unraveling of the new health care law."

He goes on to explain (as does the 11th Circuit decision) that had the mandate been funded by payroll taxes instead of a compulsory buy-in, there would be no question about its constitutionality.

Unfortunately Mr. Reich's analysis fails to point out why the President and Democrats did not "stick to their guns." Instead he offers the same liberal hand-wringing that is so common these days: "Chalk up another one for the GOP, outwitting and outflanking the President and the Democrats." The bumbling nice guys with their hearts in right place get screwed by the heartless, cunning corporate henchmen.

Hello, that's exactly what the Democrats want you to think. That way they can continue to serve the same corporate interests as Republicans and pretend otherwise.

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If you review the evidence that I present in my IndyMedia reports, you can see very clear & obvious fraud, crimes, & corruption by the concoctors of the "health care" scam.

Many law enforcement agencies, politicians, media sources, & our Justice System prove to be under their control.

Snider, you're nuts.

Batty, less so - what happened was that lobbyists for the insurance companies won. They got all the Republicans and enough Democrats to prevent passage of single payer or national health care.

It's still a representative democracy, so you don't need the support of the people, just the support of the representatives. That is, it's a "republic" not a democracy - all the more argument why we sometimes need direct democracy.

Look at who is supporting reform: Kaiser. They support the mandatory insurance. They're even kind of okay with single payer. They probably don't support an NHS system, but neither do the electorate, so it's a non-issue.

Reform is not controversial to anyone except the insurance companies. They deployed their lobbyists with a lot of money, and got what they wanted.

What the people need to do, is riot for health reform. Simple as that. The electoral system is broken. We need to pursue alternative tactics. These range from nonviolent demonstrations... all the way to riots. Preferably, large nonviolent protests, because they lead to the best outcomes, but we can't take all these options off the table.