Keep it in perspective, Bucco. The bill will cost roughly $100 billion a year--I think that's right. That's 2.6% of the federal budget. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq cost more than that each year, with the major beneficiaries being people who don't like us. Heck, the Department of Veteran's Affairs has a total budget of about $87.6 billion a year and employs nearly 280,000 people to serve the needs of roughly 25 million veterans--like me, and I can't think of even one dollar that the VA spends on me.

It's not peanuts, but it's far from a "death blow". Actually, the administration feels far from embarrassed, I'm sure. I know you don't agree, but finally achieving what every President from both parties has tried to get for almost the last century is, as Joe Biden termed it, "...a big f__king deal". Personally, I'm glad that the U.S. finally was the last to join every other civilized nation in the world in providing healthcare for every one of it's citizens--at least sometime out in 2014 it will anyway.

Was it political? Of course. Isn't everything in Washington political? Was the GOP "political" under Bush and Karl Rove? Sure. Are both parties being political now, with neither providing even one vote for any idea of the other party? Will the GOP be political if they regain the majority? Absolutely. Will the Democrats become the new "party of no"? Probably, unfortunately.

Being "political" isn't anything to be embarrassed about. But acting in a way wherein political success trumps doing any good for the citizens is. That's how our government has conducted itself, pretty much constantly for the last couple of decades at least. They all ought to be embarrassed about that--and so should we. We're the ones that permitted it.