So says Senator Mary Landrieu, Democrat(?), from LA. Many thought the trigger was dead once the opt-out public option was put in the Senate bill by Reid. But the Conservadems have clearly been effective at keeping it in play. And lest you think this is just bluffing, there is an imporant name added to the discussions: Senator Chuck Schumer.
Here's the important quote, from TPM:
"Senator Schumer's working on that. He's sort of been tasked as one of the point people," she told me. "He's been tagged as one of the point people to help negotiate that."
Schumer has been a vital negotiator on just about every contentious issue. He came up with the "level playing field" public option that got support from some Conservadems. And he has been very vocal in his opposition of a trigger. The fact that he is now discussing it is big. To be clear, he is certainly discussing the Carper trigger:
Carper's proposal would mimic Snowe's trigger plan in many ways, though the two differ in one key respect. Snowe's idea is to give insurance companies about a year, competing with each other in health insurance exchanges, to lower premium prices and expand access on their own. The federal public option would only then appear on the exchanges in states that don't meet her so-called affordability standard.
Carper's plan would use a similar--or perhaps identical--standard, but crucially, that standard would have to be met at the time the exchanges launch. No year delay. That seems to be why he calls his plan "the hammer" as opposed to "the trigger"
His naming aside, the only way this is hammer is if there are strict affordability standards. While the Carper proposal is better than the Snowe trigger, the key with any trigger is the definition of affordability. If defined correctly, the trigger can be effective.
I don't want to be a Buzz Killington here, but I don't think the final bill will have a public option. It seems as though the Senate leadership has come to this realization as well. I know the public option is do or die in these parts, but it might be wise to consider just what kind of trigger we would like and start lobbying our congressmen and women to adopt it.