Top House Liberal: We’ve Still Got Strong Bloc Of Votes Against Bill Without Public Option

[babylonsister]

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/health-care/top-house-liberal-weve-still-got-strong-bloc-of-votes-against-bill-without-public-option/

Top House Liberal: We’ve Still Got Strong Bloc Of Votes Against Bill Without Public Option


Don’t look now, but House liberals are still standing firm on the public option. Or so they’re saying, anyway.

After conducting an internal and informal count of House liberals who are still willing to oppose health care reform without a robust public plan, Dem Rep. Raul Grivalja, the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, says he’s still confident that he has a big bloc of House liberals on board to vote against anything that falls short.

“We are comfortable with the sustained support for the public option and, for myself and others, the original letter we signed is still our position,” Grijalva said in a statement emailed over to me, in a reference to 60 House liberals who signed a recent letter pledging to oppose any bill without a public option.

A Grijalva spokesperson confirms that he reached that conclusion after multiple conversations with House liberals in the last few days.

To be sure, it would be a bit firmer to have an exact whip count, and some of this could be a bluff designed to extract meaningful concessions if liberals do end up softening on the public option. But for now, at least, House liberals appear to be holding the line for the public option, even as the Senate version proceeds without one.

In other words, the showdown over the public plan continues to loom.

[stray cat]

1. we need the votes for a plan with a public option

[Vincardog]

2. I just called Grassley and told his office I wanted a strong public option NOW without a trigger

[jsamuel]

3. Just goes to show that the Public Option would have been dead months ago without the Prog. Caucus

It would have been far too easy for the powers that be to abandon it much earlier.