Senate Democrats seem poised to include a public option that includes an opt-out provision for states n the floor version of the health care bill. OMG!
The White House may be trying kill the Senate’s progressive tendencies in favor of the weaker public option “trigger” in order to secure Republican Senator Olympia Snowe’s vote. WTF?
This is like watching a particularly wonky episode of West Wing, only without getting to watch the urgent hallway conversations. Six weeks ago, all the smart money seemed to be on a final bill that didn’t include any sort of public option. But the political process is unpredictable and chaotic. All it took was a butterfly fluttering its wings to change the climate (in this case, a Washington Post headline re-discovering that the public option is popular with voters). There’s still plenty of opportunities for Democrats to get spooked and run screaming back to the political center, but for the moment, I’m cautiously optimistic.
Even if a public option with an opt-out provision passes, more battles lie ahead. Governor Pawlenty is already indicating that he would opt Minnesota out of the public option. Of course, Pawlenty knows that he’ll be out of office by the time Minnesota needs to make that decision, which gives him the freedom to pander to Republican primary voters. But I hope other state Republicans take the bait. Our state already has a public option (MinnesotaCare) and it’s proven to be pretty popular.
