"We're Leaning Toward TALKING About The Public Option" ??? - Harry Reid, Today (10\20)

[WillyT]

Ooo... gee thanks, Harry!

:wtf:

Reid: We're Leaning Toward Talking About The Public Option
Brian Beutler | October 20, 2009, 3:30PM

<snip>

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid played coy on health care reform today, saying he hopes to get legislation to CBO "soon," and that he, along with other senators and White House officials, are "leaning toward talking about a public option."

But he did have one somewhat telling thing to say: "I've had a number of meetings in my office, dealing with Democrats and Republicans on the public option aspect of it...when the decision's made to send this on to the CBO, I will have made a decision as to what we're going to do with the public option. It's not done yet."

This confirms to some extent what I reported last week--that though Reid isn't taking members to task publicly for standing in the way of the public option, he's meeting with them behind the scenes. But it also show's that he's not willing to pose the question of the public option as starkly as is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who will ask the CBO to analyze different versions of the public option, and then employ those numbers to convince skeptics in her own party that the public option is the fiscally responsible course.

Reid, by contrast, says he will make the decision about the public option based on negotiations with his members and the White House, but won't use so blunt an object as a CBO analysis to pressure conservative Democrats to get on board.

<snip>

Link: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/10/reid-im-discussing-the-public-option-with-democrats-and-republicans.php

I predict... that if the Democratic Leaders get this wrong\fuck this up...

Ralph Nader makes a huge comeback on the left\populist side.

It's all about the speed of the knees, no ???

:shrug:

[Sebastian Doyle]

1. I'm leaning towards driving to Nevada and beating the shit out of that spineless tool

Yeah, I know, he was a boxer 75 years ago...blah blah blah...

Well, if he acted the same way in the ring that he does in the Senate, his boxing career would have ended after his first fight. Or more accurately, after the first punch landed on his face and knocked his milquetoast ass down.

[inna]

9. .

[bullwinkle428]

10. I'm leaning towards donating gobs of money to his primary opponent next year!

:mad:

[Mimosa]

2. We're screwed.

And we hoped we wouldn't get the shaft. *Miss Mimosa is sour with disillusionment*

[msongs]

3. he needs a president who will kick his butt and get him and the dems in line...as the song says:

wishin and hopin and thinking and praying
planning and dreamin ....

Msongs

[lonestarnot]

4. How has that fucking lunkhead remained in his power seat? He can't have his

ass kicked none too soon to suit me.

[MarjorieG]

5. We know POption is uphill for the Senate, and we need it voted out. Once faced with killing it

it altogether, it will pass. My hope is we get Medicare to 50 as PO til exchange is up, to prevent GOP success at 2010 of misinterpreting it.

[omega minimo]

6. No he's talking about leaning toward talking about leaning about -- NO ONE BELIEVES YOU HARRY !!!!!

Including yourself. You have sold out the American People and still pretend that anyone believes your bullshit












:puke:

[Individualist]

7. Typical DLC bloviation from Reid.

[Stinky The Clown]

8. We gotta real buncha winners in that there DeeCee place, yeah?

:wtf: is right

[frazzled]

11. Ezra Klein thinks it's a good sign for the public option (it's process talk)

I don't know if he's right, but his argument makes sense.

“We’re leaning towards talking about a public option," said Harry Reid at a press conference today. Greg Sargent, along with a lot of other reporters, thought this was a weird comment. I think it reveals more than people realize, and it should make public option supporters very happy.

The negotiators can do one of two things with the public option. Figure out a compromise to put in the bill during the negotiations phase, or ignore the issue completely and let it get decided on the floor. In other words, they can talk about it or they can decide against talking about it. This quote suggests that they're leaning towards figuring out the issue in negotiations rather than leaving it to the floor.

That's a big win for public option advocates. If they get something in during negotiations, opponents will need to muster 60 votes to remove it on the floor. If the public option has the 52 supporters that Sen. Tom Harkin estimates, then that's impossible.

But if Baucus, Reid, and Dodd decide against settling the question during negotiations, then the public option's advocates will need 60 votes to add it into the bill. Harkin's 52 senators can't beat the filibuster on their own, and as he counts a solid five votes against a public option, it's not clear they can beat it all. The public option's survival, in other words, probably depends on whether it gets talked about this week in the Finance/HELP negotiations or left to battle against a filibuster on the floor.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/10/harry_reid_were_leaning_toward.html