Speaking at the daily briefing, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was asked again why the administration did not include the government-run insurance option in its final health care proposal in light of the fact that 23 Democratic senators signed a letter calling for its passage.White House vote counters my ass. Where were they when there were more than enough bipartisan votes for prescription drug re-importation? Were they out to lunch during the vote counting for the excise tax, something that could very well kill the bill altogether in the house?
"We have seen obviously that though there are some that are supportive of this, there isn't enough political support in a majority to get this through," Gibbs responded. "The president... took the Senate bill as the base and looks forward to discussing consensus ideas on Thursday."
The remarks were the clearest indication to date that the White House's vote counters don't see a viable path to getting the public option into law, even if Senate Democrats use reconciliation -- which would have allowed for an up or down vote. The outstanding question for advocates of the proposal remains: How many lawmakers could have been persuaded to vote for the public plan had the White House actually pushed for its passage?
I'm so sick of articles that portray the Administration as the only adults in a room full of wide eyed innocents blinded by ideology. OBAMA DOES NOT WANT THE PUBLIC OPTION! When people want something done, they don't spend a year actively removing it from their own bill. There's no 11 dimensional chess or secret plan at work here, it's really that simple.
When you're trying to pass complex legislation, you choose your battles. He picked a fight to drop the public option and he picked another fight to included the excise tax. There's no need to argue about his priorities and values, his actions speak for themselves.
Thankfully despite the Administration's best efforts, the public option can still be passed through reconciliation and added to the senate bill. If enough senators to go on the record signing Bennet's letter, Harry Reid will be under enormous pressure to bring the public option up for a vote.
I'm sure Ben Cardin's intern is sick of me telling him this is why I campaigned for Kweisi Mfume, but who cares? Calls to Senate offices matter (they really shouldn't, but that's another post), and you have the power to help put the public option back in the Senate bill. Do it.
can't wait to see what sort of horrible zombie-public option they come up with. pretty much my only prediction at this point is that if anything called a public option makes it back in, it'll be somehow worse than what we've got now.
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