Public Option Maneuvering Begins
Steve Benen, who has been pissing me off lately with his mealy-mouthed defense of no-public-option "reform," which he refuses to admit is no reform at all, nevertheless has a good piece today on the four main factions in Congress and how each is likely to respond to the dropping of the public option.
There are, however, four groups of policymakers in the mix. If the administration is prepared to drop a public option, the four will have different reactions.
* Republicans: The GOP's principal complaint from the outset is that a public option amounts to a "government takeover of health care." That's absurd, but it was their lie and they were sticking to it. If there's no public option, Republicans obviously lose their favorite, and perhaps most effective, talking point. Does that mean the GOP will be more willing to support reform? No, it means they'll shift their complaints to something else. Why? Because the party doesn't support health care reform.
* Maine's Senate Delegation: Will Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins be more willing to support reform is there's no public option? It's possible, and if they're more willing, senators like Ben Nelson might be more inclined to go along.
* Centrist and Conservative Democrats: Will Nelson and his cohorts find reform more appealing now? Probably, but what are they willing to compromise on? Or, put another way, if Obama is willing to drop a public option, he's moving in their direction. Are they willing to perhaps move in his direction? If the answer is "no," then there's no real point in scuttling a public option in the first place.
* Progressive Democrats: As the process has unfolded this year, the public option went from being a liberal wish-list measure to becoming the liberal make-or-break measure. There's a real risk that the left will balk at the reform bill -- no matter what else is in it -- if there's no public option, and if liberals withhold their support, reform will die.
Speaking of those heroes, Progressive Leader Anthony Weiner has some bad news for the compromisers. More on that later.
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1 comment:
See, here's the thing: no matter whether there is a public option or not, NO repugs are going to vote for a bill that was created by and is supported by Obama. If it was everything anyone could want, and cost nothing, the repugs are still not going to vote for it. So Obama has the most to gain politically by merely standing up in the stirrups and saying, "Fuck y'all, we're having a public option." The plus to this is that he ends up looking tough, he doesn't lose a single vote in House or Senate, and he may even gain a Blue Dog or two.
But this way? Dropping arguably the most important provision in the bill, ostensibly to be "bi-partisan" and pick up some more votes across the aisle is just wussified.
Note to the President: The repugs are NOT your friends, and you will never make them so. Screw them - run over their faces at every turn. This is one of those turns. Go after what YOU want, and let them play catchup ball.
Really. Bipartisanship is for sissies like Arlen Specter. And even he can't really pull it off.
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