February 23, 2010 11:28 PM UTC

Robert Gibbs proves me right about the Public Option

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• by: wade norris

Today, Tuesday Feb. 23rd, 2010, one week after the Bennet Letter was started, The White House officially stated their position on the effort for Reconciliation.

https://theplumline.whorunsgov….

“The President took the Senate bill as the base and looks forward to discussing consensus ideas on Thursday,” Gibbs added, presumably meaning that the public option is not a consensus idea.

It’s unclear why Gibbs is deciding in advance that there isn’t enough support to pass this idea. Momentum has been gathering for days. It’s also very likely that it would continue to gain steam if Obama racks up a victory at the summit and Dems press forward with plans to pass reform themselves via reconciliation.

But Gibbs’s statement seems likely, willfully or not, to slow that momentum in advance.

As I noted below, the failure to put the public option in Obama’s proposal doesn’t preclude a reconciliation vote on it later. But Gibbs is flatly declaring it a non-starter right now, before the idea has a chance to gain steam after a successful summit – a declaration that risks being taken by some in Congress as a virtual death sentence.

I still have hopes that the people making calls to the Senators can still get to 50 signatures, but realistically, this act by the White House gives those senators all the cover they need.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/…

I mention the date of February 16th because that was last Tuesday – and two days later on February 18th, President Obama came to Colorado to campaign for Senator Bennet, who is in a tough primary fight.

Excuse my incredulity, but wouldn’t the biggest news in Democratic circles – a letter authored by Senator Bennet pertaining to health care reform – just released the week before the President’s summit on health care – wouldn’t that have been discussed between the President and Senator Bennet?

Instead, I find my hopes for the President’s agenda being crushed under the weight of the cold hard reality of political calculus and inside baseball politics.

Otherwise, why on Earth would the President announce ,less than a week after the Bennet letter was created, today’s health care bill, which has no public option?

That knee-caps any effort to get to the magical 50 count for reconciliation, and gives cover to Senators who had been dodging answering how they stood on the letter – such as Colorado’s other Senator, Mark Udall, who was taped as saying that he did not know if he would sign the letter because he did not want to ‘box the President in’

(hattip to Mario-Solis Marich and AM 760)

The only answer that makes sense is that the President never intended to let the public option through, and this Bennet letter was merely the White House’s way to provide a way for some Democratic Senators to bolster their credentials with base voters, while not actually having accomplished anything.

sigh.

btw – this diary is much more an indictment of the White House than of any individual Senator.

Those who signed on can say ‘we tried’ to the base, and those who didn’t can say ‘we are supporting the POTUS’ agenda’