General Discussion

We always seem to have one two assholes that are willing to ruin it for everyone else (SInema, Manchin, Fetterman).

But the WIki article says it accurately IMHO:

I would dispute that last bit about campaigning for it all the way to the end. Obama took it off the table early on. I guess he decided he couldn't get past Lieberman.

He certainly could have mentioned the public option while campaigning. There was gaslighting galore while the legislation was going through ("death panels" etc), so most people were totally unaware that "Obamacare" was in fact going to be largely a continuation of the same for-profit system we have always had. And now, 16 years later, we are still paying double what any other western country pays and UHC and everybody else is still trying to use the same abusive denial-of-care practices they always did.

I don't blame Obama for that last bit. The Republicans have been taking Obamacare apart, brick-by-brick. Systematically, every year.

I do wonder why there aren't more Dems very clear about at least having the option to expand traditional Medicare, or even taking the slightest steps to oppose the abuses of "Advantage".