Hey, health care...what should we do tonight?

One night I remember from my early 20s is a perfect picture of the health-care debate going on in the United States right now.

Young and single near Houston, my then-girlfriend and I hooked up with another couple. After a couple of drinks, we got into that always-dangerous discussion: "What do you wanna do tonight?"

Hey, how about dinner and a movie? Too boring, my then-GF said...knowing that our friends preferred serious film making that makes one think, while we -- OK, I -- preferred entertaining mind-numbers that critics don't like.

Well, let's go to a dance club! Too crowded and too much stimulus, our friends said. This peeved me off, since I still considered myself a John Travolta-esque disco king in a John Belushi-esque body.

Jazz club? Too smoky, one of them said. Huh? This was 1982, and we all smoked at the time.

So, this went on for about an hour. By now, it was 8 p.m., so we finally said, "Let's go to dinner and see where the night takes us."

Italian? "I had Italian yesterday."

Mexican? "I had tacos for lunch."

Sushi? My stomach had a reaction that forced me to quickly leave the room.

Bennigan's, which then had its monster book of a menu? "Those fern bars are so fake!"

When 9:30 came around and we still weren't able to make a decision, the then-GF and I just announced..."If we don't come to a decision that everybody can agree on in five minutes, we're just going to order a pizza and listen to some music here."

Nobody had a really good time that evening.

And if the various political factions in the U.S. don't start to accept the fact that compromise is necessary, nobody is going to have a real good time with health care reform.

Liberals and labor unions are berating the bill that the Senate Finance Committee passed on Tuesday because it doesn't include a public option. Insurance companies and conservatives say it will raise costs and premiums too much. And of course, you still have the right-wingers who are convinced that any reform at all beyond a couple of general issues builds a fast track to the elevation of American Socialism.

The lines are drawn in the sand, and it seems that most people would rather see no health-care bill at all than one that doesn't have their pet projects in it. Anything else gives them the same feeling in their stomachs that I had when Sushi was mentioned.

It's time to face facts. Certain things like denial for pre-existing conditions and the high cost of care need to be addressed now. Extended portability is necessary. Health must not take a back seat to profits, but profits are still necessary.

The liberals need to understand that a public option will not get the votes needed to pass and that their hero, the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, would not want his legacy to be no reform at all. That's the 8-year-old who takes his ball home if he's not picked first.

The centrists need to realize that some sort of mechanism for a future public option, kind of like Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) proposed, needs to be in place in case something doesn't go right. That's not being realistic about what might happen.

Conservatives need to stop trying to protect Big Insurance and Big Pharma, all the while preaching sanctity of life on other issues. That's hypocritical.

And President Obama needs to lead. Ramp up the bully pulpit and assert your authority with the supposedly filibuster-proof Senate you have. Who's running the country and the Democratic Party? You or the Pelosi/Reid monster? (Still love the U of C Lab School connections, though. Text me!)

The two of you who might remember my "Common Sense Party" posts of a year ago -- yes, it's been awhile since I posted here -- can see where I'm going.

Congress needs to use some common sense to get something passed. Even if it's basic, any step toward universal coverage and better affordability is better than nothing at all.

Just make a decision already...even if it is Sushi.