The blueprint for a government takeover of health care.

The public option is simply a step towards a complete government takeover of health care. For evidence we need look no further than student lending.
As part of President Johnson's Great Society, government began guaranteeing student loans offered by private lenders, which became the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFEL).
In 1993 President Clinton signed into law a provision which would phase in a direct government lending program, the Federal Direct Student Loan Program, which promised to control costs for students and taxpayers and reduce the deficit. A sort of "public option," schools could choose in which program to participate.
In April of this year, President Obama called for the elimination of the FFEL program, and a House committee has recently passed a bill that does just that. The Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (HR3221) terminates federal loan guarantees under the FFEL program beginning on July 1, 2010.
According to Daniel De Vise in the Washington Post, "The Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009 would eliminate an entire category of student loans issued by private lenders and subsidized by the federal government, vastly expanding direct lending by the government."
Further enticing students to utilize the Direct Loan program rather than private lending, and entrench themselves in a life of government bureaucracy at the expense of a vibrant private sector workforce in the process, is the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program.
Apparently indentured servitude is an appealing solution. The program "forgives" the balance of the loan for graduates after 120 monthly payments while employed full time by an approved public service organization, AmeriCorps, or the Peace Corps.
Essentially, private lending of student loans would be all but eliminated in favor of direct government loans. What remains is a single payer system for student loans, and a prescription for the future of the health care public option.
President Obama is relentlessly campaigning for his brand of health care reform including the so-called public option, which he promises will control costs and reduce the deficit. Sound familiar?
While campaigning in 2003, however, he admitted he supports a single payer, government run system. Congressman Barney Frank openly admits the public option is "the best way to get single payer."
The blueprint is there. It's time to make the connection.