Public Option Politics

[adamposey]

I'm sure, by now, many of you have heard (if you're American that is!) that the "public option" (A government sponsored insurance program) will be included in whatever the Senate passes. I want to start a discussion on this, but first I want to explain why this is brilliant politics in a manner that everyone can understand. There are some important points of procedure to note on this, and some important questions to ask.

First point is that this means it is almost certain that if the senate passes a bill at all, it will include the public option. The reason I say this is that it will require 60 votes to begin a vote to remove it. Since a majority of senators favor the option (and even more favor an opt out like this one) that will not happen.

The other point my fellow Americans here might ask is "Will it pass at all?" and my answer to that is: yes, for the same reason that the option can't be stripped out. No Democratic senator will have the guts to join the republican party in a filibuster and so the Democrats will have 60 votes needed to end discussion and take an up or down vote. While the final bill may only get the support of a simple majority it will ultimately pass the senate once an up or down vote is taken. The Senate is the far more conservative house of our government so there's almost no question of whether the house can pass it or not.

I'd love to hear your reactions to this news, and your thoughts on it.

[poto]

Seen this bit posted elsewhere, and it gave me a good laugh.

We're going to pass a health care plan written by a committee whose head says he doesn't understand it,
passed by a Congress that hasn't read it but exempts themselves from it,
signed by a president that also hasn't read it,
with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes,
overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and
financed by a country that's nearly broke.

What possibly could go wrong?