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The Spectacle Blog

Thune: Government Plan Isn't Dead

By Philip Klein on 10.21.09 @ 11:33AM

Sen. John Thune said on a Wednesday conference call that there is growing momentum behind including a government-run plan in final health care legislation.

"I thought the government plan was dead," Thune said. "I don't think that anymore."

Thune said there was momentum on the Democratic side of the aisle for some form of a government plan. So far, various ideas have included a "trigger" mechanism that would create a government plan if private insurers don't meet certain targets, and another proposal that would allow states to opt out of the plan.

Thune also said that if Democrats have trouble passing a bill through normal means, they may split it into two parts, passing the purely tax and spending measures (such as the expansion of Medicaid) through the reconciliation process where they would only need 51 votes, and the regulatory changes (such as coverage of preexisting conditions) through the traditional process that would require 60. However, he said that such a move would be a last resort if they don't even have the votes to pass something along the lines of the Senate Finance Committee bill, and that they likely couldn't get a government plan through this method.

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daboss| 10.21.09 @ 2:00PM

Of course it’s not dead. And I would assume it will pass. Here’s why:

The dems (hopefully) will lose a bunch of seats in 2010. If that happens, the government plan is dead in the 2010 session. If they pass the government plan now … they STILL lose big in 2010 but have the plan in place.

So either way they are expecting to lose seats – and since they will lose seats either way, they will do whatever it takes to get everything done they can before 2010.

That is key – having the plan in place so it cannot be repealed.

MarkJ| 10.21.09 @ 5:13PM

"That is key – having the plan in place so it cannot be repealed. "

Ah, but it WILL be repealed, monsieur. It WILL be. Why? Because if a future Republican majority doesn't do it, it's going to catch biblical-scale-fire-and-brimstone hell from the Tea Party movement, which (very understandably) views the GOP as collectively little better than the Donks.