When it's all said and done, it'll be a big gift wrapped in a red ribbon to the insurance companies

You almost can't blame Democrats like Dick Durbin. If we live in a country where lies become accepted truth simply by being repeated loudly and endlessly, then why NOT just pass a bill that's a huge wet kiss on the buttocks of the health insurance companies, with no guarantee of actual payout when illness strikes, force everyone to buy it, and call it "health insurance reform"? After all, Republicans have been selling shit sandwiches for decades and calling it filet of beef on focaccia, why shouldn't Democrats?

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said that he would be willing to forgo a public health insurance option in order put a final bill to a full Senate vote soon. The Senate Finance Committee’s ranking member, Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), said that the Senate might be better off considering an alternative bipartisan health proposal once thought to be off the table.

The senators’ remarks underscore the uncertainty of the details of an ultimate version of healthcare reform.

"I support a public option but yes, I am open," to its absence Durbin said on CNN's "State of the Union."

Durbin stressed that keeping the three Republican senators, Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), and ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), still negotiating with Finance Committee Democrats is key to passing a successful bill.

"We want to keep them in negotiations. We are determined to get a bill to the floor, it doesn't have to be a perfect bill," he said. "I don't want this process filibustered to failure."

Durbin said that getting a bipartisan bill to the floor after recess was his top priority and that the conference committee could rectify differences between the House and Senate versions, including a public option.

Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) set a Sept. 15 deadline to bring a bipartisan healthcare reform bill to a vote in his influential committee. A group of three Republicans and three Democrats have been engaged in lengthy negotiations on the bill.

Some Senate Democrats have said they would force a party-line vote if the “gang of six” do not meet Baucus’ deadline.

Durbin, however, stressed the need for patience. “We need to take the time to get this right.”

Grassley took to Twitter on Sunday to suggest an entirely different way forward on healthcare reform.

The Iowa Republican said his chamber should give the bipartisan Wyden-Bennett bill a "LookSe." That health reform proposal was considered dead until he brought it up on his Twitter account.

“Republicans know need for healthCareReform That's why there are at least 4 Republican bills There is one bipartisan_Wyden-Bennett GiveLookSe,” Grassley tweeted Sunday morning.

The bipartisan proposal sponsored by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Robert Bennett (R-Utah) calls for universal healthcare coverage with private insurance companies acting as the primary insurance providers.

And herein lies the fundamental problem with our system of government: Why are Senators from the least populated states allowed so much power? Why is it that Senators from Idaho and Utah and Wyoming get to essentially override everyone else in the Senate? Of course we know the answer, it's that the United States Senate is a wholly-owned subsidiary of UnitedHealth. And anything that Senators can do to force Americans to plow more money into the pockets of their parent company is regarded by them as "serving their constituency."