Pelosi Prepares To Move Ahead With Robust Public Option

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/10/pelosi-prepares-to-move-ahead-with-robust-public-option.php?ref=fpblg ^

[foxxfusion]

Lots of talk about CBO scoring today, and now Talking Points Memo is reporting that things are looking good for a strong public option, at least on the House side:

A preliminary analysis from CBO may have sealed the deal. Speaker Nancy Pelosi is preparing to move ahead with a "robust" public option--one that reimburses hospitals and providers at Medicare rates, plus five percent--in the House's health care bill.

More:

The analysis finds the reconstituted House proposal to be deficit neutral, and require about $870 billion in new spending, over ten years.

And that's all Pelosi needed to move:

She is briefing her caucus about the plan's savings tonight, and, pending the approval of a sufficient majority of members, will adopt the measure as part of the complete reform package.

Excellent news, at least from the House side, where things have always looked a hell of a lot better than the Senate. But Pelosi has stated that "she intends to send House negotiators to a health care conference committee with the maximum possible leverage for the public option". In regards to this, TPM notes:

The move is sure to make progressives ecstatic, and puts Senate leaders, who have been unable to reach any decisions about a public option in their own bill, in an uncomfortable position.

[Frantzie]

Keep calling and faxing.

[flintsilver7]

I can guarantee one thing. ANY CBO analysis that claims to show any government-run health insurance is deficit-neutral has three properties:

1) The projection is for ten years, starting within a few months.

2) The associated massive tax increases kick in immediately.

3) The government "benefit" do not kick in until 2013 at the earliest.

Any honest analysis will show a government-run option to cause massive deficits. This is even worse since the actual numbers are always at least three times worse than the estimate.

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

WelcomeTo FreeRepublic!

[ken21]

comrade pelosi of the democratic peopled republic of america.

si.

[jveritas]

It seals nothing. If the public option i.e. socialized medicine can pass they would have passed it long time ago. This is a simple fact.

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Care to jump in here and comment on your new BLOG??

Or, are you just taking a dump on us...???

[RightInEastLansing]

IBTZ

[Lorianne]

These people do not even know what a “public option” is ... it is defined differently in every proposal. Even supporters would be surprised at what the so-called “public option” has become in some proposals.

Bait and switch: How the “public option” was sold

http://pnhp.org/blog/2009/07/20/bait-and-switch-how-the-%E2%80%9Cpublic-option%E2%80%9D-was-sold/

[foxxfusion]

I think this is going to make alot of republicans and modern democrats nervous.

[foxxfusion]

I think momentum is definitely on the left. I am especially concerned by the poll results that show support for the public option has gone from a +6 in August to +13 in September to +17 today.

[cranked]

Link to the CBO report?

[Intolerant in NJ]

The analysis finds the reconstituted House proposal to be deficit neutral, and require about $870 billion in new spending, over ten years...of course that doesn't include the quarter-trillion dollars Congress is about to approve to restore the cuts to Medicare providers included in the House proposal to get it down to the $870 billion, but since that quarter-trillion will be added to the deficit, no one will ever trace it back to the Healthcare bill - why confuse the stupid public with the facts......

[jveritas]

I think it is +100 based on a poll of the liberal media or the left wing blog where you came from. Take Rasmussen poll, the most accurate and non biased poll of all and the public option is no more than 42%.

Again, if the public option is that popular as you think on the left then the democrat who have huge majority in Congress and the White House would have passed it long time ago.