This is what the Blue Dogs in the House have been waiting for (per Chris Van Hollen):
After weeks of secretive talks, a bipartisan group in the Senate edged closer Monday to a health care compromise that omits a requirement for businesses to offer coverage to their workers and lacks a government insurance option that President Barack Obama favors, according to numerous officials.
And here…wait for it…co-ops!
They said any legislation that emerges from the talks is expected to provide for a non-profit cooperative to sell insurance in competition with private industry, rather than giving the federal government a role in the marketplace. The White House and numerous Democrats in Congress have called for a government option to provide competition to private companies and hold down costs.
The co-op squeeze play is alive and well. As we’ve said before:
The easiest political path to passing health care is still running the "co-op" crunch. Regardless of what the House does, the Senate can pass Conrad’s shitty fake co-op. The Blue Dogs band together and refuse to vote for anything else, and that’s what comes out of conference. There’s a PR blitz to sell it as a "public plan" (which is why we’ve worked so assiduously to define it as NOT a public plan), and in a rush to get something passed, Rahm starts twisting progressive arms — which have been historically very easily twisted.
Which is why we need 40 (probably more) votes in the House to say "with 76% of the country behind us, we’ll block anything that doesn’t have a strong public plan. No triggers, no co-ops." Because the weaker the bill is, the more likely it is to pick up Republican votes.



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TPMDC’s optimistic take is that if negotiations continued to drag on, the SFC would just pass a bare bones bill silent on all contentious issues so that the public option from the HELP committee and the House could be merged with it later. Is that optimistic take warranted in your opinion (provided we keep calling and campaigning, of course)?
Is there a parliamentary way to bypass this committee and bury its measley ideas? I see your point more clearly now about having the progressives ready as a block vote. Lemmee see here, no employer mandate, no public option like Medicare, subsidies ending at 300% of FPL. They put in everything we would choke on. How can we show a display of force in the opposite direction?
New talking point for us “SFC bill = Health insurance company bailout”
just now caught Weasel Words Ben Ray Lujan on the floor of the house calling for a strong public option -
he just went to the top of my call list for the morning
Screw this bipartisan crap! They are wasting their time and ours.
Gibbs:
Public option equal to co-ops? Remind me again what public option actually means?
I wouldn’t try that, if I were you. HR3200 is an insurance company bailout too.
TomThumb:
Glad you asked. Come out in favor of the only policy that’s proven to work: Single payer. That’ll change the debate tout suite.