Public Option Dying For What, 12th Time? 13th?

If the Senate actually wanted to pass a public option through reconciliation, it could be done, without much of a hot fuss. But (according to the easiest path) that would first require Nancy Pelosi to put one in the House reconciliation package, and she's like nuh-uh: "'We're talking about something that's not going to be part of the legislation,' she said... 'We had it,' Pelosi said. 'We wanted it. They didn't have it. It's not in the reconciliation.'"

Can't blame her. She knows that this 40- or 41-person public option petition going around the Senate is pure Senate loser ass-covering opportunistic parchment of lies. It seems clear (maybe) that this petition is designed to die around 42 signatures -- after the Senators who need it to build up their "liberal cred" have signed on, but before it reaches 47 or 48, at which point by god the Senate might actually be pressured into doing something about it! NEVER.

And so the Senate would find some way to weed it out of their reconciliation package, which would force the House to vote on the package again and send it back to the Senate, where yet another fat, crucial aristocratic bastard would complain about an instance of comma misuse or something and demand that the House fix this and revote again, like bitches.

There are probably three or four Senators who honestly want a public option.

[ TPM Livewire ]