| Straight away I want to start with the good news -- it will take 60% to remove the public option from the Senate bill. There isn't likely 60 who would vote to oppose the public option at this point.
My biggest fear is that the public option will be weakened into complete uselessness. Lead Capitulator Majority Leader Harry Reid (Wuss-NV) might listen to the pundits and others who have appointed Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) co-President of the United States and sole arbiter of what will be in the Senate bill. Snowe doesn't want the public option.
Or maybe Reid the Pusillanimous will be swayed by Sen. Ben Nelson (?-OK) who has been bought and paid for by the health insurers. Nelson wants to remove the public option.
What I don't understand is that the Democrats have set themselves a trap on healthcare reform. The first part of the trap is that they keep weakening the public option. The CBO has concluded that the public option will provide the largest cost savings. Secondly, the current bill in the Senate has no cost containment in it. Thirdly, the White House and Congressional leaders have sold their souls by agreeing to a deal with Big Pharma to protect their massive profits.
The trap is that a severely weakened public option wouldn't deal with what many Americans know are our three big problems:
- The uninsured.
- Bankruptcies because people get sick.
- Costs that are rising at around 8% per year.
Sound scary? Sound like Harry Reid and company are preparing to grasp defeat from the jaws of victory?
Not quite.
The fact that they are even discussing a public option is a victory in and of itself. From pundits to Republicans to corporate Democrats like Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel to blog pundits like Nate Silver would all prefer that we progressives would just cave and let the Democrats do what we do best ... fail to accomplish anything meaningful in terms of healthcare reform.
The problem is the public and a whole host of congress critters are fed up. They're angry and aren't in the mood to take it.
Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) leads the way by framing the issue correctly, but I want to state it a little more specificly.
Sen. Ben Nelson (?-OK) thinks that little to no reform is just fine. His solution is that we shouldn't get sick and if we do get sick, we should just die quickly.
Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) thinks that little to no reform is just fine. His solution is that we shouldn't get sick and if we do get sick, we should just die quickly.
Sen. Mary Landrieau (D-LA) thinks that little to no reform is just fine. His solution is that we shouldn't get sick and if we do get sick, we should just die quickly.
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) couldn't care less about anyone but himself and The Democrats won't kick him out of the caucus no matter what bull**** he says or does.
Sorry ... got off on a bit of a rant there. But I wanted to make the point that despite these selfish few, public option still has a slight hope.
That hope lies in reconciliation.
Reid the Pusillanimous is scared about his reelection prospects. He is well aware that his base and the labor unions won't lift a finger for him if a public option doesn't pass. Few will give to the DNC or the DSCC if a public option doesn't pass. Nobody will give to Reid if the public option doesn't pass.
We might be able to threaten and cajole Nelson, Lincoln and Landreiau into voting for cloture, but there isn't a chance that Lieberman will. He campaigned for McCain and against Obama and the Democrats still didn't remove him as Chair of the Homeland Security Committee.
So if Reid wants to survive politically, he's going to have to use reconciliation to pass anything. Once the bill is in conference committee, Democrats can remove the Stupak-Pitts amendment which will effectively ban abortions and any other egregiously idiotic part of either House's bill.
There is one last danger of which you should all be aware -- the national plan.
The national plan for healthcare is similar to why credit card companies are headquartered in CT or SD ... they have the most lax laws.
In other words, the high standards we force insurers to abide by here in MN would be swept aside so that a insurance plan available in Texas or Mississippi could compete here in MN. Premiums would still rise while denials and bankruptcies would dramatically increase. Wouldn't that be swell.
Another bad part of the national plan is that MN has no for profit insurance companies ... we've got HMOs which are technically supposed to be nonprofit. We require HMOs to spend the vast majority of their money on actual healthcare. This is not true in other states. Jon Walker noted that MN has a 92% medical cost ratio which is the highest in the country.
Walker also noted that the national plan is so vaguely detailed in the bill it's possible Reid doesn't expect this to make it into the final version. Here's to hoping... |
