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Tonight is a big night for the public option is both chambers. On the Senate side, Harry Reid will by huddle with Chris Dodd, Max Baucus, and several Obama aides to discuss the public option. What bastard compromise will come out of these closed door negotiating is anyone’s guess right now. Several senators have recently publicly called on the rest of the Democratic caucus to support a public option, or at least refuse to support a filibuster against a bill or amendment with a public option.
On the House side, things are looking much more positive. Nancy Pelosi has put together a bill with a price tag on par with the Baucus bill, except her bill has a robust public option and would provide coverage to roughly five to seven million more Americans. Technically, no final decision about what public option will be included has been made yet. This evening, Pelosi plans to present her caucus with a full CBO score of the bill with the different variations on the public option. As expected, the stronger public option would save dramatically more money.
Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair Raul Grijalva is feeling pretty confident. He thinks they are only a few votes shy of being able to secure a robust public option tied to Medicare rates in the House.
“We anticipate that we’re at 210,” he said. “We feel that the momentum is all on the robust Medicare plus five public option.”
The next few days could be definitive for the public option. The stronger the public option is in both bills brought to the floor of the different chamber, the greater the chances are that a real public option could be in the final bill that comes out of conference.
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hey Jon,
in the HuffPo piece, Rep Grijalva calls out a pool of 20 or so “persuadables”
any way for us to identify them or at least some of them so as to bring the laser focus ??
wary of the dreaded double post – my last comment disappeared
Yay Grijalva!
Wondering if there is any possible Anti-Trust exemption/PO trade off deal percolating in the Senate? It seems unusual that the anti-trust exemption popped up so suddenly last week.
not at all “unusual” when you find that Reid’s supporters tout his so called anti trust efforts in a brand new campaign ad
link
No idea who the 20 undecided are. Probably all blue dogs and New Democrats if I had to guess.
kind thanks for your response. it is a testament to your spot on reporting and understanding of the ever changing landscape to date that made me even ask
guess I’ll start with the New Dems
hello Congresswoman Harman, cbl here, it’s about that commitment you made to Lynn Woolsey a month ago . . .yeah, that one on the video . . .
Surprisingly Jane Harman is not the problem, my understand is she is already in the yes column.
If you are looking for the likely undecided on the robust public option. The DFA whip count list is a good place to probably start weeding down the possibilities.
Bowers weighs in with a list of possible suspects (pdf)
Sounds like the ad touts the PO and the Anti-Trust exemption as a combined strategy for reform. That is good. I hope to see both a robust PO and movement on the Anti-Trust exemption instead of getting the anti-trust exemption in exchange for not getting a PO.
looks like Eshoo and George Miller have climbed down off the undecided fence and are now in the firmly yes for MediCare+ 5 camp.
not surprising – they are both fierce Pelosi allies and have probably been waiting for her to make a move – of course it also means they aren’t listening to their constituents, just the Leadership
this means 6 to go
sorry to sound like one of the resident contrarians, but I think this is bad. I think the two committee hearings are all about Photo Ops and bolded lines in re election material
these clowns have dithered for months over a mere “option” – what would make anyone think they are willing to take on the monster that is regulation ?
And that’s why it surprises me that the anti-trust exemption popped up at all. It must be a bargaining chip of some kind, IMO. I don’t trust ‘em on this.