I don’t know if it’s for real this time, or if it’s just more political posturing on the part of certain Democrats, but it seems as though the so-called “public option” may not be as completely dead as we’d been led to believe. The following clip comes from The Hill:
…The recess week ended up providing liberal activists and their allies on Capitol Hill with a surprise opportunity to breath life into the proposal to create a government-run health insurance plan – a proposal that had been declared all-but-dead two months ago.
Ironically, it’s a shift that would have been unthinkable before Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) won the late Sen. Edward Kennedy’s (D-Mass.) seat in a special election last month. Though Democrats lost the 60th vote they needed to defeat a Republican filibuster of healthcare reform, they also gained a huge incentive to use reconciliation, a tactic Reid had previously ruled out.
With Democrats gearing up to take a final shot at passing healthcare reform via budget reconciliation rules that require only 51 votes for Senate passage, liberals see an opportunity…
As of today, 18 Senators have signed on to support the passage of a public option via reconcilliation. They include Sen. Michael Bennet’s (D-Colo.), who’s credited with pushing the matter in the Senate, and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), the vice chair of the Senate Democratic Caucus. (You can read the letter to Reid here.)… But, as you might recall, we’ve seen initiatives like this fail in the past – most recently last October, when 30 Democratic Senators signed a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid, urging the inclusion of a robust public option in any healthcare legislation that should be considered. But, as it mentions in The Hill article, the political calculus might be different now that the Republican Scott Brown has been seated in Teddy Kennedy’s old seat.
Some, like David Waldman at the Daily Kos, are skeptical. Here’s a clip from his most recent article on the subject:
…With 18 Senators now signed on to the letter urging leadership support of an effort to bring the public option to the floor under reconciliation procedures, things are either looking up for the popular plan’s prospects, or else everyone’s out looking for a freebie, hoping to snap up some progressive creds by signing on to an effort that’s both doomed and the death of which can be blamed on the Senate’s nonpartisan parliamentarian.
In the scenario where they’re punking us, it’s win-win in terms of the politics of it for the Senators. As long as there aren’t 51 signatories and nobody thinks there ever will be, anyone who wants to look progressive but doesn’t particularly care for the public option can sign on and be in no danger of being called upon to live with the consequences. And if they get 51, well then, what the hell? Go pass it. You’ve got all the cover in the world…
According to political analyst Chris Bowers, though, there may be relatively wide support. The following comes from the Huffington Post:
…Real health care reform is threatening to emerge from the ashes of the Massachusetts special election that exploded the effort in January. A growing movement in the Senate to urge Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to reinsert the public option into a health care reform package that would move through the chamber under majority-only rules depends on just how many votes backers can muster.
“Senator Reid remains a strong supporter of the public option, but it’s always a question of where the votes are,” Reid spokesman Jim Manley told HuffPost.
There’s one tried and true way to find out if the votes are there: Hold a vote.
Because of the rules surrounding budget reconciliation, the process that would allow health care reform to move through with 51 votes, any Senator may bring up an amendment to the package. An opponent of the amendment will then likely make a point of order and argue that the amendment violates the “Byrd Rule” and is out of order. If the parliamentarian sustains the point of order, the amendment would need 60 votes to pass. But if he deems that it complies with the rules of reconciliation — that it has a substantial effect on the budget and is germane to the legislation — then the amendment passes with a majority vote.
Chris Bowers, who has been counting votes based on public responses and private correspondence, counts at least 45 votes for a public option. Democrats would need to find five more, with Vice President Joe Biden breaking the tie…
So, if Bowers is right about the numbers, it sounds like there may be hope yet, especially when a member of Democrat leadership like Chuck Schumer has voiced support. Of course, it could all just be a trick meant to motivate the Republicans to enter into negotiations… Regardless, the next few weeks should be interesting.
update: It looks as though the White House might be on board. This comes from the Wall Street Journal:
…White House aides have begun to make the case that passing a bill through reconciliation isn’t an extraordinary move, noting that it was used frequently under President George W. Bush. Mr. Obama also argued Friday that recent price increases by insurance companies demonstrate the need for such an overhaul…
update: It’s being reported that Senator Alren Specter just signed on, making it 19 that are pushing for a public option via reconcilliation.
update: And then there were 20. Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) just signed on.