Has The Death Of The Public Option Been Greatly Exaggerated?
Ezra Klein seems to think so.
As long as we’re talking strategy, it’s also worth saying a bit about how these pieces fit together in the legislative process. There are three distinct phases left to complete: First, the bills have to clear the House and the Senate. That means going through committees, overcoming a filibuster and attaining a majority. Then they go to conference committee to be merged. Then they come back to each chamber for a final vote.
The White House has said that its primary goal is to get a bill through the Senate and through the House and to conference committee. This is where health-care reform stops being a campaign and actually does become a negotiation. It’s a fairly safe bet that the House bill will include a public option and the Senate bill will have a weak public option or some version of a co-op plan. Then the two will meet. What happens then?
Well, it looks like we’ll have to pay close attention to who’s on the conference committee. And since what comes out of this committee can’t be changed – filabustered and voted against, yes. Changed… No. Which, as Ezra points out, creates an interesting dilemma.
If three Democrats opposed the legislation and wanted to kill it, they would literally have to filibuster it (this is assuming that Democrats have 60 votes, which is not certain given Kennedy’s health). That would be a very hard thing to do at that stage in the game. It would isolate the obstructionists, ensuring funded primary challenges and the enduring enmity of the Senate leadership and the White House. Kent Conrad can say that there aren’t enough votes for a public option and imply that he’s just protecting the final bill from defeat. But is he willing to be one of those “no” votes? Is he willing to filibuster? That’s a different game indeed.
Very interesting.
Tags: Health Insurance Reform
Loudell’s guest from the Guardian was good. (BTW – Allan, thanks for not having yet another wingnut kook from the Washington Times)
Anyhoo, he said it might come down to who is he more likey to lose – liberal congress people or right-wing, corporate lap dog Senators like Tom Carper? If the bill includes a public option he will lose conservatives Republican Senators like Tom Carper. But if it does not have a public option he will still get the votes of liberals in Congress.
Well, he’s said over and over again that he wants a public option. It’s the conservadems and the Blue Dogs that are fighting that. The progressive wing is just trying to implement Obama’s stated plan.
This healthcare debate will tell us once and for all who is with us and who is against us. I seriously doubt there are Democrats that will filibuster the final bill.
OMG. A woman wearing an IDF (Israeli Defense Force) t-shirt shouts “Heil Hitler” to a Jewish man who praises Israel’s universal healthcare at a health care reform townhall. I guess her support for Israel is only theoretical?
Stay classy wingnuts!
Sieg Heil!
…but, hey, don’t call her a bigot because she didn’t say “you shylock Jew bas..ard”. She was just exercising free speech; and that terrible man was trying to silence her! That Jew must not believe in the First Amendment…he’s not a real ‘merican…
(shutting off snark now)
I think Ezra’s probably right. We shouldn’t worry too much if the public option disappears from the Senate bill. It can be brought back in later in the process. Or, if a pretty much useless co-op is put in its place, it can be tweaked into a public option later on (or so I am lead to believe).
Actually, didn’t she interrupt him?
Do you really believe what you are hearing? Obama said out of his own mouth, the “public option is only a SLIVER” of the health care debate. Did you not hear Sibelius say something similiar? Are you all deaf and dumb. They purposely took single payer off the table, arrested doctors and nurses, refuse to even have it scored by the Budget Office. Then we hear about the “public option” another bit of confusion. Then we hear they wont be able to get the “republicans” to sign on to a Public Option, so we may have to forego that as well. This is the biggest song and dance, bait and switch on health care I have ever heard. Stop asking “pundits and reporters” about health care. The majority havent even read a book on the topic, and know nothing about it. Go to the real progressive websites if you want real information. PNHP.org, or Democracy for America. Progressives are not giving up, we will never give in to any bullshit debate over co-ops. Co-ops is the epitamy of a “three card monty shell game”.
Because the real progressives are pressuring them, tieing up their phone lines all day to day. Faxing, letter writing and other pressures they realize they were screwing with the majority of voters. People who worked their asses off to elect these blue dog neo cons. We are going to be sold another bill of goods, there will be more confusion, and the majority of citizens wont know what they hell they are supporting. That is the shell game. Dont you all get it, yet?
Did you expect anything different?
Gibbs walked back Sebelius’s words today. But they are technically right – the public option is only part of the plan. It’s just the part that people are focused on right now.
Damn, anon2 you should go to a townhall and yell a little. 🙂
We will see if Hillary Clinton’s admonition from the campaign about Obama is true, lofty speeches and prose but does he have the toughness to be President.
Mr. Obama has had a charmed career but in the end he must leave Americans with the image as a person who cares about them, will be truthful and will help the country but he must leave some of the career politicians with an image of relentless and crushing strength.
Can he deliver?
Mike Protack
Hey, Mike Protack watches MSNBC! I just heard Tweety and Roger Simon say exactly the same thing. Imagine that!
Great post, Pandora!
Ezra has been following the details of this negotiation since last year’s hearings by Baucus and Kennedy. And while it is clear that the public option may be at risk, it is also true that Obama’s people have been out and about about every two months saying that the public option is but one part of this deal and subsequently reminding people that they are not walking it back. But this is how bills have been reported out:
*House Education & Labor – Passed – with a public option
*House Energy & Commerce – Passed – with a public option
*House Ways & Means – passed – with a public option
*The reconciled final House Tri-Committee Bill — also passed with a strong public option.
The Senate:
-Senate HELP Committee – Passed – with a public option
-Senate Finance Committee – what we are currently arguing over
The public option has persisted so far, and even if it is not in the Finance Committee, it has a decent chance of surviving reconciliation and conference.
Yes, this is a tough fight. The most I can say is not to get too caught up in the ups-and-downs of the day to day stories. We shouldn’t ignore it, because we need to apply pressure (we saw that today).
I’ve been mostly away from the news today, but I saw a TV screen around 5:30 and it looked like the news was about progressive backlash on the public option. If that is what it takes to get the death panel teabaggers off of the news, that is its own win. We do have to work hard though and perhaps this round of the Administration using negotiating words has been enough to get more of us off of our butts.
folks, let us hope the so-called public ‘option’ is dead. i for one certainly hope so. hey, i’m libertarian, not dumbshit communist. i have lived in germany and greece, and had a sampling of the public ‘option’ medical coverage in israel. the one in israel might actually have been the best of the 3, but even it stunk, imho. my girlfriend at the time i lived in germany would be minus virtually all her female internal organs had we relied on the public ‘option’. fortunately she also had a companion private option. the private docs knew what to do, they took the time to understand the problem, and as a result my former gf can still consider herself female. i had medical ‘treatment’ in greece, with the public ‘option’. i waited nearly 2 days to have a severe hand cut (wood saw) treated. awful, awful. these people have very little choice, and do not for a minute believe the glowing claims about ‘superior’ treatment in europe. its a lie. here’s another example – we nearly shat ourselves to death in st. petersburg due to severe microbial poisoning from the water. nothing avail but the public ‘option’ and we waited days to see a doc. do you really, truly want this? you gotta be kidding. you are nuts. libertarian yes, flagrantly stupid neo-communist no.
rj, i luv these personal stories as they tell us nothing, other than you might have gotten laid at some point. i had a girlfriend to and she had issues with US healthcare and it wasn’t until she went out of the good’ol USA that she got the medical treatment that she should have gotten here.
so, there are are two stories, both of them prove nothing.
difference is, my ‘story’ is genuine, yours most likely posturing. anyway, yes, i have had bad treatment in the u.s. also. eg, treated for ankle sprain that was actually a skin infection. but i’d much rather have a private insurance and private doc than any public ‘option’ i’ve seen elsewhere. what is it with the public ‘option’ fetish, anyway? it’d be a whole lot cheaper to just buy private insurance for the ~8 million (not 47 million, or does obama have it at 45 gillion) who do not have it, truly cannot afford it, and actually want it.
btw nemski, if that’s your real name, what format does your site accept? not real-world examples drawn from personal experience, i guess.
as far as private vs public, no one said you couldn’t keep your private option. what’s your beef then? is it that your tax dollars will go to help “those” people?
lol, someone using an alias is upset i’m using one. idiot.
i am scheduling on my calendar an appt to reply to any replies i’ve entered today. but now, i must (again) cook dinner.
nemski i am not an idiot. i am a moron. what a doofus, not to know the difference. but, i’m a well traveled moron.
scurry away rj
nemski you pimply faced fraud, you’ve never had a girlfriend!
rj, deep, dirty wounds like from a saw, are not typically closed with sutures upon presentation to the ED. The wound is impossible to clean adequately and is typically left open for several days to drain.
rj doesn’t make much sense. He had bad treatment from a private-insurance paid doctor but he just knows in his heart that one paid by the public option will be worse? Here’s a hint: most doctors accept payment from Medicare and from private insurance. In other words, there will be the same doctors when another option is available.
Rational Jew? Giving health care to uninsured Americans is communist. Are you aware that Israel has a single payer system?