Pelosi and Reid Backtracking Public option.

[LaydeeBug]

Un.fucking.believable.

[dionysus]

1. proof? details?

[Mass]

3. Here, I guess

( a lot of appear, though- hard to know whether it is diplomatic language or something else.), and a few other reports.



http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/11/health.care/

Top Democrats in Congress soften on public option

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Democratic leaders in the House and Senate are signaling their willingness to drop a government-run public option from a final health care bill.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, in comments at separate news conferences Thursday, said they would support any provision that increases competition and accessibility for health insurance -- whether or not it is the public option that most Democrats favor.

...

Pelosi, who said as recently as Tuesday that a public option was essential for passing a health care bill in the House of Representatives, on Thursday used language on the issue similar to Obama's speech.

"This is about a goal. It's not about provisions," Pelosi said, adding that as long as legislation meets goals of "affordability and accessibility and quality ... then we will go forward with that bill."

She said she still thinks a public option is the best way to achieve those goals. But when asked if inclusion of a public option was a nonnegotiable demand -- as her previous statements had indicated -- Pelosi ruled out any nonnegotiable positions.

Reid was asked about a Senate proposal that calls for nonprofit health insurance cooperatives instead of a public option.

"The purpose of a public option is this: to create competition, which is so important, and create quality health care," he said. "... So if we can come up with a concept of a cooperative that does just that -- that is, it makes more competition and it makes the insurance companies honest -- yes, I think that would ... fill the bill."
...

[dionysus]

8. thx

[joeycola]

9. and another one..........

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/58275-sen-reid-endorses-co-ops

[dionysus]

12. the difficulty of herding cats, poor message control, deflective language, or backtracking.

[joeycola]

13. she is parsing words now--she is weak IMHO

[ProSense]

17. No the media is parsing words and you're buying into it. n/t

[joeycola]

19. LOL

[high density]

14. What a joke.

Being open to something is now "endorsing" it? The media is RUNNING OVER themselves to cast doubt over the public option and bringing in infinite amounts of assumptions that have no place being in honest news reporting.

Like Obama and Pelosi, Reid has said that he personally favors setting up a government insurance program.

I'll be happy when this is over. The mindscrew going on in the media is unbearable.

[ProSense]

16. Reid did not endorse co-ops

Late update: A Reid spokesperson tells me "Reid did not endorse the co-op plan at today's press conference. He reiterated again today that he supports a public option but is open to interpretations of such a plan. The goals for him are lowering cost and keeping the insurance industry in check." And indeed, it does seem that other reports have overstated Reid's remarks.

link

[high density]

11. So in other words, absolutely nothing new here.

The media keeps reporting the same report over and over again, acting like the public option is on shaky ground and unsupported by leadership. It's the same bullshit every time with the same logical error in asserting anything short of a demand is a "softening" or "weakening" on the issue. Pelosi and Reid sound exactly like Obama on the issue. "We wan the public option, but if there's something better, by all means show us what it is." So far there is no showing going on of alternatives, but the media ignores this fact and runs with the bullshit.

[ProSense]

15. This is the media's new spin. Here is AP

While effusively praising Obama's speech from the night before, Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada signaled separately the president may not prevail in his call for legislation that allows the federal government to sell insurance in competition with private industry.

Reid said that while he favors a strong "public option," he could be satisfied with establishment of nonprofit cooperatives, along the lines expected to be included in the bill taking shape in the Finance Committee.

Pelosi, who has long favored a measure that allows the government to sell insurance, passed up a chance to say it was a nonnegotiable demand.

As long as legislation makes quality health care more accessible and affordable, "we will go forward with that bill," she said.

Democrats are divided over the public option in both houses, liberals strongly in favor and many moderates against it. Critically, though, it appears that any chance for Republican support would evaporate if legislation permits immediate, direct competition between the government and insurance industry.

<...>

"They hit us with their best shot; distortion, misrepresentation, and obstruction," Pelosi said. But she said Democrats had "sustained the effort admirably" and now "we're in a better place to go forward."

link

Not only did CNN leave out that last point, but AP claims the Dems are divided in both Houses"?

[WyLoochka]

18. She's essentially saying the same thing Obama said

Or trying to.

Paraphrased Obama:

"If anyone has a better idea than the public option to meet the goals - bring it!"

Well, guess what - there isn't a better idea. We've spent 97 years trying to find one. Obama knows it, Pelosi knows it.

Saying you are open to other ideas that will meet the goals puts the complainers and nay sayers in a dead end box.

[Mass]

2. I read that too, but, assuming it is true, Reid would not surprise me at all.

Pelosi is harder to believe, because she will need the left to pass the bill, while there is no left in the Senate (Sanders excepted).

(the CNN article is fairly vague and subject to interpretation).

[quantass]

4. Yup i read this too -- Cenk Uygur (TYT) predicted this would be happening...

he said ultimately this will lead to a Trigger. I hate it when he is right (which is all the time)

[ProSense]

5. "I hate it when he is right (which is all the time)" Are you Cenk or a relative? n/t

[dionysus]

10. didn't you know that people like cenk and krugman are the smartest people in the universe?

i like them both but i presume neither to be the end-all know-all of any particualr political issue.

[DrDan]

6. well - not exactly

I think Harry is redefining "public". Didn't he say "exchanges" would equate to a public option?

So we will still have one . . . just not the one we expected.

We were confused.

[branders seine]

7. spines are off the table