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.