Add to favorites Examiner Bio

Will Public Option Pass? You Bet.

Insert photo caption or credit here

The first attempt at passing a public option failed Tuesday but hope remains.

The bill failed when five "moderate" Democrats voted against the bill, against their party, against their president, and essentially against their own best interests.

Fearing public outlash from the small yet very vocal opposition, Max Baucus, Blanche Lincoln, Kent Conrad, Bill Nelson, and Tom Carper voted with the Republicans who continued to protest that the public option would bankrupt the country despite facts painting a different picture.

The bill voted down today, one of several proposals for the public option, would have saved the country $100 billion over the next ten years.

This vote was hardly the end of the public option, however. More so, it was the remaining few Blue Dog Democrats trying to flex their muscle.

Knowing the way that their party is run, the leadership of the Democratic Party will simply reach out and buy those five Senators' votes. In a perfect world, the party would threaten to, as the Republicans do, run another Democratic opponent in their state's primary, refuse to give them any DNC money, or strip them of their seat on a particular committee.

Despite the fact that this isn't a perfect world, the Democrats will eventually compromise and the Congress will eventually pass a bill that is a compromise onto itself.

Americans will not have universal healthcare. Many will remain uninsured or underinsured. But we will see a step in the right direction. Even if it is a watered down one.

 

In other news, Max Baucus is still useless to the party.