Status Report

Posted on 08/16/2009 at 7:05 pm by Bob Cesca

Sunday show remarks and retaliatory pitchforks aside, where are we with the public option?

Just a reminder.

We have five congressional committees tasked with healthcare reform legislation. Four of these committees have passed reform bills. And all four reform bills have the public option included.

-House Ways & Means – PASSED – “Strong” public option
-House Education & Labor – PASSED – Public option
-House Energy & Commerce – PASSED – Public option
-The reconciled final House “Tri-Committee” Bill passed with a strong public option.

-Senate HELP Committee – PASSED – Public option
-Senate Finance Committee – The name for our pain

The House will pass their bill which included the aforementioned “strong” public option.

The president absolutely needs the Finance Committee to reach a floor vote because Finance has jurisdiction over Medicare and Medicaid (Arg!). That’s possibly why the president has been speaking positively about Finance Committee goons recently because they’re holding up the process and he needs to grease the skids. A Finance Committee bill is mandatory. Without it, healthcare reform is dead.

The Senate bill might not have a public option, but we won’t know until there’s a vote. It all depends on getting a Finance Committee bill, and whether the HELP bill passes a floor vote. Of course zero Republicans will vote for either bill.

The only way the HELP bill will pass is if it’s via reconciliation, mandating just a majority rather than 60 votes.

The Finance Committee will probably have to pass via reconciliation even with the murky co-op instead of the public option. Without a reconciliation vote, it’ll have to be 60. Senators Byrd and Kennedy won’t likely be well enough to vote, so that’s just 58 votes to break the GOP filibuster. That means the Democrats will have to get two Republicans to vote for the Finance bill and I’ll be very surprised if they get two Republicans.

Nevertheless, if we get to Conference Committee, it’ll be a House bill with a strong public option and a Senate bill with a co-op squaring off against each other. The president has pledged to help reconcile the two bills. This, my friends, is when the president’s statements about the public option will really matter. The whole deal will come down to the Conference Committee.

So the best thing we can do right now is to keep up the pressure and reassure Congress that the American people want the public option. Reassure them that we’ll have their back if they vote for a bill with the public option sometime this Fall. This tact has worked before — we got a House bill with a strong public option. It can work again.

Adding… If any of my civics are off, let me know. Preferably in singing cartoon bill form.

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  • Chris Koeber

    There you go, Bob!This is what should be on the Left’s minds! Not the noise machine or the day-to-day comments but practical consensus on where everything stands.The reason why the Democrats always lose is because people don’t play the long game.Frankly, if the Blogosphere on the Left had serious posts like this mixed in with the standard analysis of what the Right is doing we would probably be moving further along because the Left wouldn’t be so dam confused all of the time.

  • jjasonham

    What I don’t understand is why we didn’t know that this “the Public Option is Dead” bull is exactly what was supposed to happen. It’s like clockwork…get congress to hold off on a vote before recess and during recess, get certain members to “declare” it is dead.

  • http://nanotyrnns.blogspot.com/ Nanotyrannus

    When I read up on the Wikis about the conference committee, it said that it’s usually dominated by committee chairs from both houses. That’s what I want us to keep an eye on – who’s on that committee. We’ll need to apply enormous pressure there and I’ll be more than a little worried if I start to see too many Blue Dogs on that committee. I’m hoping they’ll be shut out of this, but I’m not holding my breath.

  • http://politicalpartypooper.wordpress.com/ Political Party Pooper

    Just out of curiosity, Bob, is a Senate Finance committee bill a Constitutional requirement?

  • http://www.bobcesca.com Bob_Cesca

    PPP asked:>>>Just out of curiosity, Bob, is a Senate Finance committee bill a Constitutional requirement?The Finance Committee isn’t in the Constitution. The Constitution doesn’t cover congressional committees.

  • http://politicalpartypooper.wordpress.com/ Political Party Pooper

    Thanks Bob. I didn’t think so, seeing as how even after 233 years, the document isn’t all that large. But I wonder sometimes why the process is so much like visiting a dentist from the stone age.

  • http://homepage.mac.com/wildlifeweb/bird/flamingo/honolulu/flamingo01.jpg veralynn

    Put this on HuffPo Bob.

  • http://www.osborneink.com Matt Osborne

    Bob, this is spot-on:

    The president absolutely needs the Finance Committee to reach a floor vote because Finance has jurisdiction over Medicare and Medicaid (Arg!). That’s possibly why the president has been speaking positively about Finance Committee goons recently because they’re holding up the process and he needs to grease the skids. A Finance Committee bill is mandatory. Without it, healthcare reform is dead.

    Process, process, process.