Talking Points Memo is reporting that Obama is now actively working to kill the public option.
Multiple sources tell TPMDC that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is very close to rounding up 60 members in support of a public option with an opt out clause, and are continuing to push skeptical members. But they also say that the White House is pushing back against the idea, in a bid to retain the support of Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME).
Given the reports that Reid is within a vote or two of being able to pass a bill that includes a national public option with an opt-out, a full-court press by both Reid and Obama should be sufficient to insure health care reform contains a public option. Democrats clearly seem to have the power to get a public option with an opt-out provision passed through the Senate using regular order (or, of course, using reconciliation).
Reid and Obama both claim they want a real public option. Now they have a chance to deliver.
The grassroots, House members, senators, and policy experts have all called Snowe’s trigger idea worthless. A public option has strong majority support, and is favored overwhelming among self-identified Democrats. If Reid and Obama reject this chance to deliver on both of their promises to provide Americans with a the choice of a public option, it will stand as a monumental betrayal.
If the public option is sacrificed, just to possibly win the support of one unnecessary Republican vote, Harry Reid might as well resign and officially declare Olympia Snowe Senate Majority Leader. In the next few days, if there is a “trigger,” we will know Reid’s continued “leadership” is less than worthless to progressives.
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Losing Snowe means the WH cant run on a bipartianship theme in 2012.
Perhaps theres a better reason for letting her hold the PO hostage, but I cant see it.
OT: Wazzup w/ my apostrophes turning into 3 backslashes?
Her input will be like putting just a little bit of excrement in your next pot of chicken soup.
Dumb question: Why does Obama think Snowe’s support is so important? Surely not just so he can slap a BIPARTISAN sticker on the bill. Who does that help?
There must be some other reason.
I got it. Get the Great Troll of Stamford on board. There you have it. Bipartisan. Dem + CFL.
Why else would Harry Reid’s Merge Talks need babysitters from the Executive? He’ll do what he’s told.
Absolutely Right!
Taking it to a different frame, my guess is that “bipartisanship” and Obama’s chivalric pursuit of Snowe’s Republican vote are a cover for his protection of the insurance industry by putting off a public option under a trigger (he is now said to favor, perhaps since early on) which we know will probably never get pulled. Insurance companies don’t like opt-out, so Obama doesn’t either. “Bipartisanship” — appealing “across the aisle” with the pretense of gentlemanly broad-mindedness — is an ideal head fake to hide his true interest in a corporate agenda and the filling of his campaign coffers. Even if he loses Snowe, he has pursued her and for this he gets credit, or so the strategy is said to go: Per WaPo “The Fix,” Chris Cillizza (9-16-09)
“Honest effort” sounds like a benign motive but I question whether it is the opposite. After all, the direction toward a corporate agenda is to the right, so it’s a natural move for Obama, not just in the act of “reaching across” but in being seen that way by the general public (as good guy seeming to be “inclusive”) and by his corporate backers (as their guy). It’s about being perceived. It’s a way of communicating to his various constituencies (we of the progressives are not included). He can’t lose (except with us and he’s calculated we’re expendable).
Perhaps this shows how, for Obama, only strategy matters, not policy.
In other words, the White House is pushing back against the opt-out PO not to retain support of Snowe but to retain financial support of the insurance companies.