Must Read from Ezra Klein: Harry Reid and the Public Option

[flpoljunkie]

Emphasis mine.

Harry Reid and the Public Option



Politico's Pulse offers this rundown of Harry Reid's evolving thinking on the public option:

WHY THE SENATE BILL MAY INCLUDE A PUBLIC OPTION: The public option was front and center again yesterday, with President Obama’s senior aides reiterating the White House position that Obama supports a government-run option -- but isn’t demanding one. Fortunately for public-option supporters, they may not need much more presidential support now that reform has fallen into Senate Majority Leader Reid’s lap. Unions and progressives have been aggressively railing against a Senate Finance bill that they call a giveaway to insurance companies. And this week, progressives will begin running ads in Reid’s home state of Nevada asking whether he’s strong enough to get a public option passed.

The conventional wisdom has been that Reid would not include a public option in the bill he takes to the floor, but would give liberals the chance to add it later. Now, Reid could diffuse a lot of progressives’ animus by doing the reverse -- including a public option in the bill he brings to the floor, but giving opponents the chance to strip it out. The move could increase his progressive cred and prevent a backlash from the very allies whose help he will need in what’s shaping up to be a very tough re-election campaign.

I've heard a lot of conflicting things about Reid's intent on the public option, so I'm going to steer clear of any predictions. But it's worth keeping one thing in mind: These two outcomes are not equal. If Reid includes some kind of public option in the compromise bill, then it will take 60 votes to strip it out on the floor. If he does not include some type of public option in the bill, then it will take 60 votes to add it on the floor. In other words, getting your priorities met during the Senate negotiations means you don't have to face the filibuster, and your opponents do. It's a huge advantage.

Photo credit: Melina Mara -- The Washington Post.
By Ezra Klein | October 19, 2009

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/10/harry_reid_and_the_public_opti.html

[Captain Hilts]

1. Rich white male milionaires with guaranteed lifetime govt-sponsored health ins. calling all shots.

[uponit7771]

5. Thought same thing when lookin at pic in OP

[Parker CA]

2. Hopefully someone selling steel spines on the cheap crosses paths with good ol' Harry very soon! nt.

[Tom Rinaldo]

3. One reason why I have been steadfast in warning about the consequences of abandoning the P.O.

...is that there still is time to influence our decision makers before the fact rather than just reacting after it.

[Faryn Balyncd]

4. The consequences of a Baucusite bill will ravage the middle class & destroy the Democratic majority.

A public plan is not just the best for our healthcare, it is necessary for our society.

Two roads divide in a yellow wood.

And,if we choose the wrong path, and squander this opportunity to do what is right, and pass just another bad corporate welfare bill (albeit the largest of all time) we will destroy our credibility with those who are our victims (the middle class), and we will destroy our Democratic majority.



{K&R, by the way.)

[uponit7771]

6. Adding the PO BEFORE...BEFORE it's gets to the floor is import. If Reid does NOT add it before it...

...gets to the floor we should throw a fit

[flpoljunkie]

7. Reid is the Democratic Majority Leader. He must lead.

Top Aide: It's Time For The White House To Take Stand On Public Option
Brian Beutler | October 19, 2009, 4:36PM

Last week, at a meeting between Senate health care principals and Obama administration officials, the White House basically told Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid it would be leaving most of the big legislative decisions on reform to him. This week, Reid is faced with an onslaught from pressure groups, including labor and the grassroots, demanding that he include the public option in the health care bill he brings to the floor.

In a sign that Reid may be willing to acquiesce, if only the White House helps him whip the caucus into shape, a top Capitol Hill aide tells me "Right now, we don't have 60 Democratic Senators in lockstep with one another on the public option...we need the president to send a strong signal to those in the room negotiating the merger, that the public option is, really, what he wants in the final bill."

This weekend, White House adviser Valerie Jarrett reiterated the White House's non-committal stance on the public option. The aide's plea for more White House involvement suggests non-committal statements like Jarrett's are insufficient to save the day for public option in the Senate's bill.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/10/senate-aide-its-time-for-the-white-house-to-take-a-stand-on-the-public-option.php?ref=fpa