Harry Reid isn't talking, but someone is. The New York Times has an outline of a "compromise" worked out by the 5 x 2 group -- the ten senators from the left and right of the Democratic party. It's not my idea of a public option or yours. It's a mock-up with promises. In the words of the Times report, it "sidelines but doesn't kill" the public option.
Under the agreement, people ages 55 to 64 could “buy in” to Medicare. And a federal agency, the Office of Personnel Management, would negotiate with insurance companies to offer national health benefit plans, similar to those offered to federal employees, including members of Congress.
If these private plans did not meet certain goals for making affordable coverage available to all Americans, Senate Democratic aides said, then the government itself would offer a new insurance plan, somewhat like the “public option” in the bill Mr. Reid unveiled three weeks ago ...NYT
Notice how many quotation marks there are in any discussion of the Democrats these days? "Public option." "Sidelines but doesn't kill." Not to mention "Democrat."
Obama could become an insta-hero if he were to refuse his signature on such a bill.
LBJ would have unflattering words for his old party. Maybe he'd be growling the same thing he said about one of the Kennedy team -- " ...wouldn't know how to
pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were printed on the heel."
Is incompetence a medical condition?
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The Washington Post headlines the Senate's compromise like this: "Senate tentatively agrees to remove public option." The report mentions the "kick in" possibility.
Under the deal, the government plan preferred by liberals would be replaced with a program that would create several national insurance policies administered by private companies but negotiated by the Office of Personnel Management, which oversees health policies for federal workers. If private firms were unable to deliver acceptable national policies, a government plan would be created....WaPo
