Time for Obama to step up and declare himself. Enough with the, well, the public option is the best idea so far but if someone can come up with another idea. The time for alternative ideas has come and gone and no one has come up with a viable alternative to the public option for one simple reason: there is none. There is no alternative that will accomplish the savings that the PO will. O-Man, time to declare yourself!

This, apparently, didn't sit well with Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, who is determined to keep Sen. Olympia Snowe's vote.

To hell with both of them. Do the right thing, make voting for cloture a prerequisite for staying in the Democratic Caucus and get this done the right way.

All together now: "Fuck you, Max."

Remember. Max Baucus was NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER on our side. FUCK YOU MAX BAUCUS.

So much for Max wanting a public option, and only *not* putting it together because "there weren't the votes". Here he was trying to stump for senators to threaten to filibuster to kill it. Clearly Max is showing his true colors as being bought off by Big Health.

John

"It was indicated that based on some surveying that had been done of the moderates..."

How about doing some surveying of what the majority of the American people want and not just a handful of tired old politicians? And right now, Max Baucus is pandering to a constituency of one.

Say that again?

"Any provision in the base bill that hits the Senate floor will stay in unless 60 senators can band together to strip it out. That means if a public option is included now, it's almost certain not to go anywhere."

The second sentence seems to contradict the first. As I read this, if Reid and leadership put public option in "base bill" it will take 60 votes to take the public option out of the base bill. (Not sure I understand why, but let's leave that go.) But if "a public option is included now" (which I take to mean in the base bill), "it's almost certain not to go anywhere."

If "it" refers to public option, I don't understand that. Hard to believe there'd be 60 votes to take it out. What am I missing? Or is there a word missing? Or do you mean 50 instead of 60?

Fellow liberals, please unbunch your panties. Obama's been playing this game with flawless precision from the beginning. He literally brought everybody to the table and let them think they will get what they want. Liberals like us were aleady on board, and he got us to give up sinlge payer immediately while keeping us in the game. Drug companies, hospitals, equipment manufacturers, doctors, nurses, insurance companies, and even Olymipa Snowe were all offered something (even if only praise) to move the process along. Now comes crunch time and somebody is going to be disappointed, but it won't be us. If there is a public option, liberals will be happy and we'll probably break Obama's own fundraising records for 2012. If there is no public option, Max Baucus and Olympia Snowe would be happy, but would not be in a position to donate $60 million per month to his reelection campaign. Obama knows this; the math is simple. That's why there will be a public option - because Obama needs it to get reelected. Haven't any of you noticed that this guy is really smart?

I am glad Baucus is being overruled and seriously wish the caucus would elect a new chairman for the finance committee and rething the makeup of that committee... it needs more big state (larger population) representation.

However the opt-out that pushes this fight out into each and every state is a just a new gimmick and an excuse for not getting the job done!

I don't want to have my health insurance used as a political football year after year depending on which way the political wind is blowing in my state.

No true public option that cuts costs and is available to 'all' Americans,

No mandate!

I've kind of kept quiet but wanted to say this for a while.

A lot of you don't seem to realize how our government works. You seem to think if Obama was just like, here's the bill congress, go pass it, that would succeed. Congress doesn't like to be pushed top down, they get their ideas, they get their agenda, but legislation is their job.

Health care reform would not have been possible if Obama didn't let Congress handle the damn thing. He's smart to stay out of it. He's not going to go public and be like "that damned congress" when he has 60 sens plus house majority. It's better the blue dogs than republicans in 2010.

Our congress was set up to move deliberately slow. Our Senate to be an ice bath. Just because we haven't had a bill of this importance pass through in some time, doesn't mean Congress all the sudden became a breeze to pass bills through.

You think now is the time for Obama to show his hand? Hardly.

BTW - "Moderates" isn't accurate. Folks like Nelson and Bayh and Blanche are *conservatives*. Both fiscal conservatives, and more socially conservative than one would think.

ConservaDems is the common term in the Senate, akin to the Blue Dogs in the House.

You given them too much street cred by calling them Moderates or Centerists. They aren't.

John

Obama and Reids moment to tell Baucus to go fuck himself.

Why a public option is really a private requirement. #slatepitches

After reading comments for a some time I have finally decided to leave a comment. I want to thank all of you for the many comments you leave. They are so much more informed than the knee jerk comments I read constantly on other sites. You have done much to educate me on how this procedure works. I know that the process is much more complex than most realize. I was disgusted back in August when I thought the public option was dead, but at some point I realized that the MSM and the GOP hasn't called much right for a few years now. I calmed down, just as I did when I realized Palin was a liability and not an asset. While none of us knows for sure that the bill will include a public option, it is looking good. I am sure healthcare reform will be passed and almost sure it will include a public option.

In whatever poll I've seen, a strong majority of Americans want a public option.

Why are people who oppose the majority of Americans called "moderates?"

Obama would like to see other centers of Democratic power, not just him. He has made his preference clear.

The Democrats won nationwide, and not just Obama as President. Let us see the other parts of the Democratic Party exercise some leadership.

I feel like the White House was expecting that progressives weren't going to simply roll over on issues like the public option and co-opted them into keeping the heat on "moderate" Dems, especially in the Senate.

The fact that orgs like HCAN, OFA, etc. was able to do things like organize and get the average person participating in by letter writing, rallies, letters to the editor and of course word of mouth, sent a very strong message to vulnerable centerists that they would have far more to lose by caving to the GOPers and the insurance fat cats instead of enacting meaningful reform.

Money can buy influence, but in the end, an active and vocal constituency decides how a Congresscritter votes. After all, they don't want to lose their jobs, and the insurance companies didn't vote them into office.

Because the liberal wing of the party was keeping the pressure on Sen.'s like Reid, Baucus, Conrad, Nelson, etc. and making very clear their expectations, that meant that come crunch time the White House would be in a position of strength and have lots of political capital in making sure their and our 'preferences' make it into the actual bill and so they can enact meaningful reform. When it comes to Congress the pressure has to come from the grassroots, not imposed top down.

Anyone else feel this way?

It seems that one thing which is surfacing is how crucially the two-per-state senate makeup influences the progress of legislation. Here, we have really important changes to law being negotiated among a bunch of people who represent an insignificant percentage of the population. I for one, have no problem with the big tent in the democratic party, as long as we stop referring to these people as moderate. Moderate compared to Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney, yes, but otherwise, no.