Jane wonders why there has not been a single Democratic senator who will say they would vote against cloture. If none will, there is no need for compromise. Who would pay the financial price of letting red states opt out of a money saving public option? A look at what states are likely to opt [...]

The CBO is out with an analysis on the effect of tort reform. Despite Republican claims that it is practically a cure-all for the nation’s out-of-control health care costs, its effect would be very minor. The CBO analyzed the effect of adopting several extremely rigorous changes to our legal system including: A cap of $250,000 [...]

So there are now enough votes to pass a public option in the Senate. It may not be a great public option, but the notion that we “don’t have enough votes” just exploded. On the other hand, not one single member of the Democratic caucus who said they oppose a public option says that their vote will change with the “opt-out sell-out.”

Somebody explain to me again why we’re even discussing this again?

When a party has had enough votes to end a filibuster on its own, we have not been able to find a single time in history where members have joined with the opposition party to filibuster a bill.

So who is the Senator willing to stand up and say they will take this unprecedented move, betray the President, the Senate leadership and their own caucus, and do this?  Who is willing to say they are going to make history?

Not Joe Lieberman, because Mike Stark asked him two days ago

I choose that guy–make him pay! I’m not talking about who will pay in the political sense. I literally mean who is going to pay the billions of dollars it will cost to let red states opt out of the public option? We know from the CBO that a public option would save between $25-$110 [...]

I just have one question for the veal pen. Where is there even one, and I mean one, member of the Democratic caucus who has said they will join with Republicans to filibuster it? Come on, you’re cheering for a sketchy plan with only a one page “white paper” that nobody has seen. Surely you’ve thought this through, and are convinced it is a necessary step to keep Democrats from voting against cloture.

So who is it? If you’re acting out of political necessity, who is this mysterious Senator (or Senators) telling you they’ll take this bold step, who don’t have the courage to say so in public?

Democrats once again are negotiating with themselves.  And who pays the price for this convenient piece of political calculus if they turn out to be wrong and insurance industry money is successful in getting red states like yours to opt out of a public option?  Well, Rikyrah over at Jack & Jill Politics gives us a pretty good idea.

Last week a one-page plan from Sen. Carper was being circulated around the Senate. His public option “compromise” was to “let” states set up very weak, highly restricted, state-based public options if they wanted to. The problem is that this is not compromise. Any state could technically set up a public option right now if [...]

A combined total of 154 million people (51% of the population) live in states where Republicans control the governor’s mansion or the state legislature.

If you don’t think the next four years will see a multi-million dollar surge in donations from health insurance companies to politicians at the state level, you don’t understand politics.

I’ve already said that I think allowing states to “opt-out” of a public option is an immoral and unnecessary political compromise, an attempt to let Democrats off the very hook that so many have worked so hard to get them on.  But I cannot say it as well as Rikyrah does.