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A new CBS/New York Times poll shows that 59% of respondents want a health care bill that contains a public option. Those opposed is 29%. This is in stark contrast to the misinformation put out by desperate Republicans trying to paint a false picture of the public rejecting a public option, hoping to put a scare into Democrats.
This poll is also consistant with two recent polls showing 58% want a public option and 59% respectively.
This is in stark contrast to a another Rasmussen poll,(trashed here when it came out) that showed only a 38% approval for a public option. At the time I wrote an article showing that Rasmussen was one of the most unreliable of all polls, and subsequent polls have proved it.
While the CBO is currently scoring a senate proposal that doesn't have a public option as part of a senate compromise, there are reasons to believe this is nothing more than a wily ploy by Reid to put four senators who have opposed the public option in an untenable position politically.
While no one is saying, it is almost a certainty that the new proposal which includes a buy in of Medicare for people at age 55 will cost more than the opt out public option in the previous bill. Further, the CBO scored the public option version as reducing the deficit by over $160 billion over ten years. It is also almost a certainty that this compromise bill will not be as deficit friendly and will probably not reduce the deficit at all but add to it.
That would mean that the public option, which has 56 Democratic senators supporting it would be the most fiscally responsible bill. It would also make Joe Lieberman, Blanche Lincoln and the other two Democrats who have voiced opposition, look like either fools or liars if they continued to oppose the public option.
Given that any member of congress reserves the right to look like both a fool and a liar, if any of the four continued to oppose the public option, given that the CBO has said it would be beneficial to the deficit and hence the budget, it would give Harry Reid the excuse he needs to use budget reconciliation to pass the bill. That would only require 51 votes and eliminate the threat of a filibuster.
There is also the possibility that another end game is being played knowing that anything coming out of the senate has to be reconciled with the House bill. If a senate version without a public option goes to conference, it will most likely, with instructions from Reid, be compromised with the House version to include a public option. Enough members of the House are on the record as saying they wont vote for a bill that doesn't have a public option, to kill it. At that point Reid can also invoke budget reconciliation to pass the joint bill.
With such a large majority wanting a public option it has become almost politically untenable for the Democrats to pass a health care reform bill without it. It has gottent to the point where it is much more politically dangerous to pass a health care bill that doesn't include it.
And while some ignorant opponents of reform ( see: Republicans) like to refer to the bill as Obamacare, their ignorance notwithstanding, Obama has had little or nothing to do with the current bills or what the bill will be in its final form. Obama's only contribution to the final bill will be to sign it. And probably reap the political benefits.
Comments
If we get a compromise reform Bill through this Congress that extends coverage to millions of people, ends the pre-existing conditions exclusions, adds full insurance portability, makes it illegal for insurers to drop patients or raise their rates just because they get sick, repeals the anti-trust exemption, allows for national programs and gets the same prices congressmen and women get - as well as setting up exchanges to increase competition, then we will really have done something important.
Paul Burke
Author-Journey Home
And the NYT is a completely unbiased, reliable polling agency? Gimme a break.
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