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Re: Could the Public Option Get a Third Lease on Life?

By Kate Pickert | @katepickert | February 18, 2010 | +

The plot thickens. Greg Sargent catches that Chuck Schumer just signed on to the push for Senate Democrats to pass a public option via reconciliation. (See my earlier very skeptical post on this topic in which I agreed with Sargent that Schumer’s support for the idea is meaningful.)

And the AP is reporting that the White House will post a health care plan online Monday morning, three days before the Feb. 25 bipartisan summit.

Related Topics: chuck schumer, Democratic Party, health care summit, public option, Republican Party, Uncategorized

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  • Paul-no not that one

    Someone said that this is like how BHO and Plouffe handled the super delegate roll out.

    A couple a day.

  • afguy

    Democrats lost their ability to block filibusters when Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown won a Senate seat last month.
    .
    Yeah, right… like they ever intended to do that in the first place…. you know, that “bi-partisanship” thing-ey…

  • afguy

    And, oh, by the way, has Obama canned Axelrod and Emmanuel and get someone in there who ACTUALLY WANTS to try to pass legislation that includes a “public option”?
    .
    Nothing like having a COS/guide/navigator that keeps steering you into the obstacles, instead of around them…

  • square1

    BTW, as a matter of simple negotiating tactics, it is wise for the Dems to explicitly put the public option back into play.

    First, it is popular with the public, so it is smart for Democrats to make clear that, if it isn’t in the final bill, it is because the GOP didn’t want it there.

    Second, the Dems shouldn’t concede that the Senate Bill, in its present incarnation, is a baseline and that the GOP can negotiate off of that. If the Dems are going to open discussions back up, then EVERYTHING (or at least an vastly eviscerated “public option”) should be back on the table.

  • queencersei

    I wasn’t a fan of reconciliation. But between anti-incumbent feeling in general and the fact that the Dems are getting lambasted whether they pass HCR or not, they may as well go all in and try and pass the most liberal version of HCR they can. If they go down in flames during the next election at least for once they can say they went down with the courage of their convictions.

  • afguy

    square1,
    .
    I agree. I’ve always wondered whose idea it was to drop it in the first place.
    .
    Did Obama make that determination himself, or did someone else on whose judgment he relied tell him that it wouldn’t fly.
    .
    Obama doesn’t do his own research – he relies on others to do that and report back. Given a close call (or a forecast of hard, bruising work ahead), I just think Emmanuel was well-placed to drag a foot and put a pessimistic spin on something he was against in the first place.
    .
    I just hope that, at some point, he gets someone without an ax to grind of sorts to run interference for and champion these proposals.

  • charlieromeobravo

    Agreed, though I’d replace “the most liberal” with “the most effective”. Tea Baggers and Repubs will paint anything the Dems want in the bill as radically liberal anyway but it doesn’t matter. Once the programs are in place it would take a pretty massive effort to repeal them. That’s the funny thing about polls. When you poll people on how they like the Republican interpretation of the HCR bill’s elements, they hate it. When you present the real elements to them they like them. Good luck killing a program that people actually like and are willing to pay for. How long have conservatives been trying to kill Medicare and Social Security?

  • queencersei

    Absolutely. Whether the Dems pass this thing or not, some of them will certainly be voted out in the next election cycle due to the general wave of anti-incumbency. But if they passed something effective regarding HCR, it would be something to point to in election years beyond this next one. Such long term thinking seems to be beyond most politicians though. It is all about winning the immediate election. Good governing be damned.

  • stuartzechman

    Ezra Klein thinks that the White House is squarely against the PO (link to “Is the Public Option making a comeback?”):

    …there’s an upside, and it’s not just that the public option is good policy. The public option is also popular policy. Popular with the country in general, and popular among liberals in particular. The Democratic base is disgusted by the fecklessness of their representatives and depressed about the compromises that have gone into this bill.
    .
    Adding the public option into the legislation would give them something to fight for, and something to be excited about. If you believe, as most people do, that midterm elections are largely about base mobilization, and that Scott Brown’s victory was in part assured by demoralized Democrats who didn’t feel much affection for either Martha Coakley or the Democrats in Washington, this may be the party’s last, best hope to give its passionate supporters the win that would reinvigorate them for 2010. “I don’t think that was the original strategy behind signing this letter,” one Senate aide told me. “But that may be the strategy we fall backwards into.”
    .
    For all that, I’d still bet against the public option. For one thing, there’s sharp resistance to this idea in the White House. The administration has just spent weeks rebranding itself as a bipartisan outpost in a sea of bickering hacks. Resuscitating the most controversial element of the bill and running it through reconciliation looks less like reaching out and more like delivering a hard left cross to the opposition.

    The DLC is in firm control of the White House, apparently.

  • Paul-no not that one

    “The administration has just spent weeks rebranding itself as a bipartisan”
    .
    Huh?
    .
    I would say that they spent a year trying to brand themselves that way but the last few weeks-The Q&A with the House Republicans, the (lame by my view) mocking of Palin and now the proposed televised HCR meeting-has been more and more defining the differences.

  • carotexas1

    I have not decided what is going on here. I thought at first they were trying to let the Republicans know what they could do and they needed to get on board.
    Last night I was flipping channels during the commercials on the Olympics and stopped at the Rachel Maddow show. She was discussing this blog topic and had Bernie Sanders as her guest. I like Bernie so stayed to see what he had to say. Turns out he had a lot to say.
    He said that under the rules they have now they can do the public option, close the donut hole and make it more affordable. He said they can also include education at the same time. Pell grants construction etc. Then later they can do energy.
    Here is the link, Bernie does not come on until four minutes into the program.

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#35450836

  • afguy

    Oh, to have more of these programs in which the host and guests actually, you know, DISCUSS issues in an intelligent and enlightening manner…

  • libsarescary

    First off, any Republican attending this “summit” should be voted out of office. What a stupid idea. Obama just wants a photo op to then call his revamped “plan” bi-partisan. He has no intention of taking out any of his pet ideas….or will do what he can to win passage with the quiet promises to “fix it” after it becomes law.

    As such, the Republicans should just sit back and watch the Democratic Party implode. That is the smart thing to do—and the right thing for the Country.

    The Senate bill is more than about healthcare. It is the end of the American way and the beginning of our demise (a la Britain).

    To say Republicans need to be told that the Senate bill is a baseline and they can negotiate off of that is ludicrous. Republicans won that battle and are in the driver’s seat. They should do nothing more than insist the bill be scraped altogether.

    To pass this bill in reconciliation is suicide for dems. I am sure they can pass all of their pet projects using simple majority votes. It just proves once more that they don’t give a hoot about their constituents, just their political power and ginning up their liberal base.

    That’s not to say something shouldn’t be done about healthcare. It is a travesty what is going on. The Senate bill does nothing at all to fix the poblems. In fact, it will make them much worse.

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