The Baucus bill is bad enough. But the so-called "public
option" isn't yet dead. Reports
Politico:
The forces in favor of a public health insurance option roared
back Thursday on Capitol Hill after weeks when their cause
looked bleak.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) looked closer than ever
to including a robust U.S. government-run insurance program in
the House bill - saying recent attempts by the health insurance
industry to undercut reform prove insurers can't be trusted.
And in the Senate, a weekly policy lunch turned into a heated
debate when liberals went after the Senate Finance Committee
bill and made clear they won't roll over for legislation that
doesn't include a public option.
Reflecting deep divides within the caucus, the Senate luncheon
turned tense, with voices elevated and senators venting. "In
today's lunch, it even involved a little performance theater,"
Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) said, describing it as an
"emotional catharsis."
In a week when the Senate Finance Committee passed a bill
without a public option - raising questions about whether that
would prove the public option's last gasp - progressives in
both houses showed they won't go down without a fight.
As bad as the Baucus bill is, the end result still could be far
worse.
About the Author
Doug Bandow is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute and the Senior Fellow in International Religious Persecution at the Institute on Religion and Public Policy. A former Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan, he is author of Beyond Good Intentions: A Biblical View of Politics (Crossway).
