as michael leavitt has written in a soon-to-be published fox news articles, "a co-op that would be federally controlled, federally funded, and federally staffed sounds like the public option meets the new general motors." well, mr. president, in the era of the gm takeover, as we know, washington controls the purse strings, pays the bills, dick taits the rules. the same would be true of a washington health care co-op. as leavitt put it, washington health care would result in americans be co-opt rather than being given a co-op. americans are concerned about the cost of the bills being imposed on the other side. an estimate shows that the bill in the "help" committee -- health, education, labor, and pensions -- or the draft bill crate creteed by the senior senators from massachusetts and connecticut -- that's the piece of legislation we're talking about -- would cost $1 trillion over the course of 10 years. but only would reduce the number of uninsured by 16 million people. so $1 trillion would bring 16 million people into the insured status. for those that would be newly covered, the cost woul