Tom Harkin: The Public Option Will Be 'Revisited'

[SpartanDem]

One of the public option's strongest Congressional supporters insisted on Monday that while the Senate is poised to pass health care legislation that does not offer consumers a government-run insurance plan, he will bring the idea up again -- most likely after that bill is passed.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) told reporters that the public option is not dead. "It will be revisited," he said. "I'm just saying, I believe it is so vital and so important that it is going to be revisited. Believe me." The Iowa Democrat said that "even next year," senators "may be doing some things to modify, to fix, to compliment what we've passed here."

The idea of pushing for the public plan as a stand-alone piece of legislation sometime down the road has been championed by other supporters of the provision.

Harkin did not blame the White House for the absence of a public plan in the Senate's bill, as his colleague, Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) did in a statement on Sunday night.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/21/key-dem-the-public-option_n_399608.html

Better not say it too loud before passage after what Lieberman did to the buy in.

[glen123098]

1. I don't see how it will ever pass.

If Obama can't get it with 60 seats, he's probably gonna have less seats next term to try and get it.

[GreenPartyVoter]

16. That's my concern too and why I wanted it to go through this time around.

[proud patriot]

2. He will be in the final committee too I believe

[andym]

3. Yikes. Shhh.

Not so smart to talk about this. Lieberman could insist that there be no followup in return for his vote.

But does it really matter? Yes, because a Medicare buy-in at cost (or above cost) or a public option is potentially expensive. Better to have subsides that this bill creates available for people who qualify to get Medicare at a reasonable cost.

[liskddksil]

4. We need to collectively tell them

that we will not vote for anyone in the Senate unless a public option passes before the 2010 election.

[CTyankee]

6. They've seen the polls that essentially said that the public overwhelmingly

wanted a public plan. It didn't make a damn bit of difference. They're out of touch, on the take and couldn't care less what the voters think. Why should they? They're getting handouts from the insurance and pharma folks. If they get defeated they'll get a big lobbyist job in D.C. and never go back to Kansas, or wherever they're from...

[mzmolly]

5. Yes indeed

it will. :hi:

[freddie mertz]

7. I love ya Tom, but don't get our hopes up.

Best of luck to you, my man, but I'm not expecting anything yet.

[Skink]

8. Revist and stick in budget

[Cleita]

9. Nuclear option?

Norman Goldman talking about it on the radio today and he is a lawyer. Is it possible? That means we would only need 51 senators to pass a bill. We wouldn't need Lieberman, Nelson, Snowe or Collins. We could put back the robust public option and cover women's health including abortions.

[Renew Deal]

13. I think the public option can be done as a budget item that can't be fillibustered.

That was the problem all along. The regulations couldn't be put into budget reconciliation. That's why they needed this bill.

[ipaint]

10. fairytale. n/t

[NJmaverick]

11. Harkin makes a good point, there is no reason the bill can't be improved upon

in many ways I think it will be easier to pass on specific measures as it will be easier for the public to understand the changes (rather than try to digest the entire bill)

[kenny blankenship]

12. IOW: you have to give us a pass for our betrayal of you today

because there's still a chance we might not betray you again in the future! Keep on believing--we can't improve if you take your trust away!

[bigwillq]

14. Was he the one that said

the public option would be included in the final bill? Yes, I know the bill is "final" yet, but why should we listen to him when he already spouted lies? :shrug:

[spartan61]

15. I so want to believe this but

I've been disappointed so many times in the past several months that I just can't believe anymore.

[secondwind]

17. can't we do this with 51 senate votes in the end?? Somebody PLEASE say yes!

[levander]

18. Haven't we wasted enough time on the public option?

Look, it's not a bad idea, it's a good idea. A very radical one that I'm a little skeptical of. But, I'd love to see a common sense plan that would work as a public option.

But, that damn public option argument, it's been the crux of the whole argument for the entire last year. I'm really wondering if they couldn't have made more progress in other areas if they wouldn't have fought so hard, expending so much political capital, on the public option. It was doomed to fail from the beginning. You could look at the votes and see, "they'll never get that passed". I don't believe Obama was ever much of a proponent of the public option like a lot of people on DU. But, he was willing to let the Senate do it if they could get the votes. However, it was this summer when Obama started talking about, "the public option is just one of the silvers" that he could tell it wasn't going to make it. But, for whatever reason, the hard-headed Democratic old guard in the Senate just wanted to keep banging their head against the wall.

They damn well could have banged their head against the wall on other issues, probably making more progress. But, nooooo....

If Harkin is talking about at the very earliest revisiting the public option in '14, okay. But, we couldn't get it with 60, we're gonna lose seats in '12 with all the Republicans screaming about what a horrible job we did on health care, so '14 makes it the very earliest this issue might pass. And, most likely, sometime past '14.

[Cha]

19. KR

[Umbral]

20. How's he going to talk the Republicans into fixing the Democrat's health care mess? nt