Which way now on health care?

The health care debate (that's seems like too generous a term) has been tough to stomach. Now we seem to be left with no attractive options. E. J. Dionne argues one extreme: cut a deal asap.

MoveOn.org and others are still rallying their members to keep on the pressure to keep a strong public option alive in the Senate.

What's most galling is that Joe Lieberman and a couple others are able to derail what the public supports and what most senators support. With nearly 60 votes in the Senate, the Democrats should be able to do better. Howard Dean is out there fighting on, but it's getting harder and harder to believe that any final bill will involve have real cost controls if there's no real competition to private insurance.

We already spend far more than other countries and get worse results (based on the findings of Kaiser Family Foundation and many others). I'm for health care for all, but not for unregulated private insurance forced upon all. If Medicare expansion is on the table, perhaps Medicare reform and expansion down to age 55 could happen together. We could also pass the pre-existing condition reforms and some of the other insurance reforms. We should not accept a cynical compromise that will make insurance less affordable and therefore less available. (Then when it fails the conservatives can argue, See, it didn't work as promised.) And states must be allowed to experiment with other models, including single-payer.

I'm starting to wonder if Dems should let the Republicans vote down a reasonable proposal (with supporting votes from Lieberman and a handful of others) and then go to the voters in 2010 arguing that the party of NO means NO health care reform in spite of what the voters said in the 2008 election. In spite of all appearances, I think that's a fight Pres. Obama would like to have.

So, my question: what do you think the Dems should do now? Compromise and take what they can get in order to build momentum for the rest of Pres. Obama's agenda? Fight on, realizing that Republicans might be able to block progress indefinitely? Try to find a way around potential filibuster in the Senate?

Right now, I think taking a compromise bill that might lead to overall failure of the reforms would be a mistake. Fight for something that will work, not for something that has little chance of fixing the system (and that won't kick in for three or four years anyway).