This is extraordinarily smart politics:
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will submit multiple versions of the House's healthcare bill for cost estimates, she announced on Thursday.
The first proposal will include a "robust public option," which would tie doctor reimbursement rates to that of Medicare plus five percent. The remaining two drafts submitted for the Congressional Budget Office's consideration would include a public option based on "the negotiated rates that some in our caucus have supported and which was passed by the Energy and Commerce Committee," the speaker explained during Thursday's press briefing.
Obviously, this will offer proof positive that the a public insurance plan based on Medicare rates will generate a less expensive healthcare reform bill. Then we can sit back and watch the "fiscally conservative" Blue Dogs fall over themselves trying to explain their opposition to a clearly more responsible bill.
Go, Madam Speaker!