Friday Health Care Reform Wrap

We're getting down to the wire on the health care reform bill. This week saw a lot of posturing and jockeying in both houses of Congress as pertains to the lynch pin --- the public option.

In the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi saw the latest poll numbers showing that 57% of Americans support a public option and brought the hammer down on Democrats with a “you're either with me or agin me” ultimatum so that she could know if she had her 218 votes to get a robust bill passed. Apparently, she came up short and is now looking at the two weaker bills that the House has to choose from, indicating that the best we'll get is a public option that is triggered into effect if insurance companies don't meet certain criteria within a certain time frame. As Kent Jones would say, “WEAK!!!”

On the other side of the Hill, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid culled this statistic: “If a public plan were run by the states and available only to those who lack affordable private options, support for it jumps to 76%.” Reid, who is facing considerable pressure from progressives in his home state of Nevada to get this thing done, met with President Barack Obama yesterday and laid out his strategy which might include an opt-out option for states. Obama, in his steadfast commitment to bi-partisanship-at-all-costs, is rumored to have expressed support for the above-mentioned trigger plan because Maine Senator Olympia Snowe (who's a Republican) has previously tossed that ball around.

Here's where that wagon goes off its wheels:

Howard Dean is right when he says that the public option is vital to reform because it puts the power in the hands of the people by giving us the choice rather than the politicos and the lobbyists and the insurance companies. It's also the only thing that will stop Teddy Kennedy from rolling over in his grave, peace be upon him.