Politico:
Senate Democratic leaders signaled Thursday that their version of health care overhaul will include some form of a public option, but it may be limited in scope so they can secure 60 votes to break a Republican filibuster.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) called the public option a "relative term" and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said "there is not one way to Rome, there are lots of ways to Rome."
"Remember, a public option is a relative term," Reid said. "There's a public option, there's a public option, and there's a public option. And we're going to look at each of them."
None of the leaders discussed the specifics of what a watered down public option would look like. Two versions have already been rejected by the Senate Finance Committee.
So, is this a case of a half a loaf being better than none or is it a case of taking a piece of crap and just calling it a loaf? Obviously, it's hard to say. Having an actual public option coming out of the Senate means that there will be a public option on the president's desk. They'll need to resolve differences between the House and Senate bills and the Senate's idea of what constitutes a public option could be strengthened by the House bill in conference committee. Remember, no matter what the Senate does, we're going to get a hybrid.
Still, this doesn't sound very good. A "relative term" suggests a fundamental redefiniton, which means it wouldn't be a public option at all, but some horseshit they want to sell as one. At this point, I guess we wait and see... That is, when we're not emailing and calling our Senators.
