Comments on: In progressive victory, Reid sends public option to floor: Centrist Dems now face certainty of exposure

By: Maurice

Maurice — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:04:12 +0000

And on another note, this makes the gubernatorial races that much more important.

By: Maurice

Maurice — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:03:22 +0000

If it’s an opt-out, I really don’t care. I doubt that Butch Otter will go with it, unless he has sense enough to realize the dire poverty in a lot of areas. Plus none of the miners up North can get health insurance (unless they started working early enough to get it through the mine), and they’re the ones who really need it, too. Why in the world coundn’t it have been a personal opt-out, where everyone gets it unless they don’t want it? This is just frustrating for a liberal red stater.

By: Guy

Guy — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:14:56 +0000

Supporter of Real Health Reform - I am not sure Taniel loses credibility when referencing the Washington Post since you reference realclearpolitics which has its own bias.

The polling does bounce around but virtually all polling I have seen by many companies shows a majority 55%-75% depending on the poll support a public option of some description.

You also have ot remember that the Dems won the right to try their ideas - it is a democracy and they won hansomely in 2006 and 2008.

By: Supporter of Real Health Reform

Supporter of Real Health Reform — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:11:35 +0000

Look at the raw numbers of the poll and the wording of the question. Check out realclearpolitics for a good article on polling of the public option. Bottomline, a free market solution of allowing insurance companies to sell across state lines is a far superior and more effective solution than a socialist gov’t option. You lose a lot of credibilty when referencing the Washington Post.

By: Taniel

Taniel — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:20:42 +0000

Supporter of Real Health Reform, I assume you are aware of polls showing a majority of Americans support a public option, for instance last week’s Washington Post poll in which 76% said they supported a public option with an opt-out mechanism?

By: Supporter of Real Health Reform

Supporter of Real Health Reform — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:51:06 +0000

You might have to redo your headlines to “American Victory”, Lieberman just announced he will not support this bill and will vote against cloture. Snowe is also against and it’s only a matter of time before other centrist Dems start abondoning the sinking ship. Real health care reform that the majority of Americans want starts with allowing insurance companies to sell insurance across state lines. Remember 20% of Americans view themselves as liberal, so when is congress going to get the picture. No wonder why they have like 15% approval.

By: Guy

Guy — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:56:38 +0000

Great summation. As I mentioned in a previous comment the state opt-out is a great “compromise”. It allows some Conservative Dems to say states rights whilst essesntially allowing most of the country to have the option. Most deep red states are fairly small in population (WY, ID, UT etc) whilst the big states are blue or at least progresive enough to have the option available (CA, NY, NJ, PA, IL, NC). Obvious exceptions are Texas and Georgia but we will see how these work in practice and then states can choose. It at least shoots the lie that the Federal Government will determine your options.

By: fritz

fritz — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:32:08 +0000

I think Obama has played this PO debate perfectly. He has not placed himself firmly in any one position re the PO and allowed the Democratic leadership to work it out themselves and take credit for the successes. I’m pretty sure Reid would not have put out the PO+opt-out option against the express wishes of the WH.
With each step forward the moderate Democrats are placed in a tougher position. In the end I think there will be 60 Democratic and 3 Republican (Snowe, Collins & Voinovich) votes for cloture and only one or two defections for the actual vote on the bill.
There are three proposals I still am waiting to find out about: the Wyden amendment(the PO now covers only 10% of the population, his plan would open it up to everyone); the antitrust removal proposal and will they introduce parts of the plan in 2010.
Over to you Nancy.

By: Panos

Panos — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:10:02 +0000

It’s pretty ironic the fact that the man who pitched the opt-out compromise and literally saved the public option was a business friendly (some would say corporatist) Democrat like Tom Carper.

I reckon that Reid must have also taken into account the fact that Snowe’s seeming veto power over the bill had infuriated many of his fellow Democrats.

By: Ogre Mage

Ogre Mage — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 06:04:36 +0000

Politically, this was clearly the right move. Balancing the needs of the base and the center while at the same time getting decent policy is a challenge, especially on as difficult an issue as health care. Including the opt-out public option in the bill assuages the left of the party while Democratic senators in red-leaning states get to punt and say that the decision is in the hands of state government.

While I personally would have preferred to see a more robust, Medicare-like public option, similar to what Pelosi was proposing in the House, politics is the art of the possible. Hopefully a strong public option will still be passed there, so that she goes into House-Senate negotiations with as strong a hand as possible.

While there has been much to criticize about Harry Reid’s tenure as majority leader, he must be given credit for making the right move here.

I am virtually certain that my state, Washington, would join the public option. Thank God Dino Rossi didn’t become our governor.