Missouri blocks health care law?

I have some good news and some bad news.

The bad news: Missouri voters voted yesterday by a smashing margin of 73% to 27% to block part of the new federal health care law.

The good news: The part they voted to block is the part that should have never passed anyway - namely, the requirement that everybody buy insurance from a for-profit corporation. Although the Republicans claim to oppose this part now, they supported it for years.

Then again, Missouri doesn't have power to block it, because it doesn't truly infringe on state powers. So we're back to square zero.

Assuming the Missouri referendum actually did anything, how valid is it, considering that the vote occurred on the day of the primary instead of the general election? Republicans made sure the referendum was on primary day because their party had more competitive primaries than the Democrats and other parties - thus, more Republicans would be out there voting. The referendum might be invalidated just because it was timed to suppress turnout of Democrats and independents.

About a decade ago, right-wing activists in the city of Holland, Michigan, used a similar gimmick. They got a referendum placed on the ballot that would have required the local library to block websites they disagreed with. That's their idea of "small government." However, they scheduled the referendumb for Republican primary day - which was different from the date of the Democratic primary. This was all for naught though: Despite inflated GOP turnout, the measure still lost.

Now the real question is: Where's the public option we were promised? Huh, Congress?

(Source: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N03183470.htm)