...It doesn't make any sense -- Harkin says there are 54-57 votes for a public option. That's a clear majority. And it would certainly pass the House. No, the only reason to pass a bill without a public option is if the White House doesn't want one. But who is going to let the public know? Who is going to make the announcement that there will be no public option? Who's going to take that political hit?
The White House doesn't have the stomach for it. They want someone else to take the hit...
There are certainly Democrats in the Senate who have said that they won't support a public option, but so far nobody has stepped forward to say they'll join a Republican filibuster to stop it. Nobody wants that hot potato alone.
But they have to do something, because if a public option winds up in the Senate bill, it's going to be damn impossible to get out of there.
So the best model, the safest model (relatively speaking) is one of distributed responsibility. Some group (say, a "gang") stepping forward to announce that they have arrived at an agreement that everyone can live with, some abomination that makes the insurance companies happy and has some code language in there for "triggers." They'll present it as a "solution," and won't mention that the "problem" only exists because they're willing to join with the GOP in a filibuster but won't say so. Then nobody will point out the obvious -- that anyone who is willing to do this should lose their gavels immediately. That's how we'll know everyone is on board, despite their angry rhetoric...
You know, at some really deep visceral level these crooks have got to hate being so transparent.
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