President Obama will Pay Lip Service to the Public Option in his Congress Speech, and Scrap it Later
by Earl Ofari Hutchinson
There were two, fresh neon warning signs that President Obama will pay lip service to a public option in the health reform plan and then scrap it later. The first warning sign was his kind of, sort of tout of a public option in his address at the AFL Labor Day picnic in Cincinnati. Obama left more than a few listeners scratching their heads when he said he backed a public option and then muddled things by saying that he considered it part of a basket of insurance choices.
The second searing warning sign is the probably deliberate leak from Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus's office that the public option is nowhere to be found in his plan. Worse, it has not been a key part of the round-the-clock negotiations among the key players, starting with Baucus, on the finance committee.
The Senate Finance Committee is the name of the congressional game on health reform. Without Baucus and the handful of other swing senators that Obama desperately banks on to seal the deal on some plan, health care reform is effectively dead. If so, Obama's political capital and personal prestige would nose dive even further. He has no choice but to kiss Baucus and the committee member's rings. Unfortunately, the public option is not on their fingers.
The mixed signal from Obama and the flat rejection by Baucus of a fully functioning and fully funded public option is no surprise. It was simply the latest in the long line of neon bright warnings that the public option will go when it's crunch time.
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/earl-ofari-hutchinson/president-obama-will-pay_b_279620.html
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