Chris Bowers thinks we have the votes to pass a public option if we are willing to do it as part of a budget reconciliation process. If you read Politico, you might not feel so certain. According to their reporters, Alex Isenstadt and Martin Kady, the House Leadership is back on its heels and are going to pursue a rather a dispiriting strategy for anyone who is currently uninsured.
The comeback for Democrats — if there is one — will begin in an all-important closed-door caucus meeting next week in the basement of the Capitol, where House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and her top lieutenants will try to undo the damage of the August recess and convince their wobbly members that a vote for health care reform will not cost them their jobs in 2010.
Leaders say their strategy is to convince members that nothing is set in stone and that they are more than open to negotiations. And they’re engaging in a softer sell, prioritizing health insurance reforms while pitching the public option as something that’s way, way down the road.
More specifically:
[Majority Whip Jim] Clyburn, for his part, is advocating a “two step” approach in which the most widely supported health insurance reforms, like coverage for pre-existing conditions, go into effect immediately, while the public option is framed as a distant step — something that would go into effect in 2013, only after benchmarks and pilot programs are studied.
Clyburn has proposed setting up modest pilot programs for the public option in certain regions or states — an experimental way of seeing whether these health exchanges can actually work at the local level before they go nationwide.
That is some pretty weak-ass shit to be using as your upfront approach. It might make a good final compromise if that’s the best we can do, but the House ought to be able to bring a good bill to the Conference and make their concessions there, rather than at the beginning.
If Bowers is right, a bill could be rammed home that has a robust public option. It might not kick in until 2013, but it can get passed. I hope the House isn’t crafting a bill with the thought that there are Republicans in the Senate who will vote for cloture. I think that getting any GOP support for anything is highly unlikely.
