Talk Radio News:House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) stated Tuesday that House Democrats have no intention of striking the public option from the final draft of the health care reform legislation.
“We’re not talking about dropping the public option,” Hoyer said during a pen and pad session with reporters. “One way you bring down costs substantially is to have a public option that provides competition.”
Hoyer’s statement comes after a noticeable divide has opened up between the Majority Leader and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) over how committed Congress should be to a public option, with the latter taking a much more aggressive stance in favor of the provision.
The Majority Leader announced that he will be speaking with congressional Republicans in an attempt to find common ground on health care reform, noting that a few Republicans have stated they are behind 80 percent of the proposed health care bills.
“I want to find out what that 80 percent is. If we have 80 percent, then we ought to work very strongly on the remaining 20 percent. It will be my intention to invite them to do so.”
I wouldn't worry about that 80% -- it's just an arbitrary number that Republicans think sounds good. Try to pin them down on specifics and they aren't going to give you any. That's not the game plan. They just pulled "80%" out of thin air because they don't want to sound as unconstructive as they actually are.
The bad news here is that Hoyer's been all over the map on this. On the eighth of this month, he was saying the public option might need to be dropped. This was after he said that he'd "vote for a public option with or without Republican support" on the first. Of course, that was after August 21st, when he said, "I’m for a public option but I’m also for passing a bill" -- suggesting this was something he'd compromise on. He's kind of been straddling that fence all along here; for it, but willing to drop it, but for it, but willing to drop it, but for it... Sooner or later, he's going to have to take a stand on solid ground.
It's nice to hear he's for it again. I just wish you could take him seriously on the issue.
