According to Politico after the Health Care Reform summit the White House, Reid, and Pelosi are going to come out and commit to reconciliation if there is no compromise between Republicans and Democrats on health care (which many feel that there will not be).
http://www.politico.com/...
Although Reid and Pelosi do not know if they have the votes for a reconciliation side car, Obama, Reid, and Pelosi are committed to getting health care reform done one way or another and that may mean reconciliation.
They know that there could be a lot of political problems using this method but I suspect they know that NOT doing health care reform is FAR WORSE for the country and for the Democratic party so they are ready to take the hits.
President Obama, House Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Reid are preparing to begin the reconciliation process after next week’s bipartisan White House health care summit. "They are coming out of the summit guns-a-blazing and they’re committed to reconciliation," said one Democratic insider. All three are dedicated to comprehensive reform, but Reid and White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel are cautioning that "it’s going to be a heavier lift than a lot of people expect it to be," said a senior Democratic official. "It’s going to cause political problems." Not the least of which is how Democrats pivot to reconciliation, a procedure Republicans view as a partisan ramrod, shortly after Obama hosts the GOP to talk about bipartisan solutions.
The reconciliation side car will most likely consists of a $200 billion fix of the Senate bill to improve affordability, close the doughnut hole, etc. However, the exact make-up of this has yet to be determined and most likely will be worked on after the summit.
Right now, Democratic leaders are considering a $200 billion reconciliation bill that includes more affordability subsidies, the union-tweaked Cadillac tax and filling in the gap in seniors’ drug coverage, which would be paid for primarily by additional Medicare cuts and an increase in Medicare payroll taxes above those in the Senate bill, an insider said. Still, Democratic sources stress that neither Pelosi nor Reid know if they have the votes to pass a reconciliation bill. And despite rumors that a House-Senate deal is imminent, a senior Democratic aide said there is virtually no chance it gets done before next week’s summit. That leaves insiders suspecting that Obama will release a set of principals or conceptual language that includes the greatest hits from the House and Senate bills.
In terms of the public option, Sebellius has said that if the Senate brings it up for a vote then the White House will push for it but of course this is a BIG IF. It will be tough to even get 50 Senators for the reconciliation side car much less for the public option but IMO there is always hope.