The public option hot potato is still in play. Watching the Obama and Reid and the Senate Dems tossing it back and forth all year, it's like the old "Life" cereal commercial. "I'm not gonna kill it, you kill it. I'm not gonna kill it, you kill it." They've apparently figured out the answer. "Let's get Nancy to do it."
If House Democrats include a public plan in the reconciliation bill they craft to "fix" the Senate's legislation, Durbin will work hard to make sure the provision (as part of the reconciliation package) has the votes for passage. If it's not in that reconciliation package, he won't lift a finger. In fact, he will work against efforts to add it as an amendment.
"Sen. Durbin and the rest of the Senate Leadership will be aggressively whipping FOR the public option if it is included in the reconciliation bill the House sends over," [Durbin aide Joe] Shoemaker wrote in an email that he authorized PCCC founder Adam Green to make public. "Conversely, the Leaders will whip against any attempt to alter or amend the bill if the public option is not in it (or as your email says -- whip against adding the public option as an amendment in the Senate.)
"The reason is simple. There can be no amendments - good or bad - to the reconciliation bill once the House passes it and sends it to the Senate. The House will not do step one (passing the Senate healthcare bill in the first place) if they do not have assurances that the fixes they want (i.e., the fixes in their reconciliation bill) will be passed unchanged by the Senate."
Shoemaker continued: "I believe the progressive community's best hope of seeing a public option in the healthcare bill is to lobby members of the House to include it in the reconciliation bill they send to the Senate and to continue to get senators to pledge their support for it."
....
At this point, there hasn't been much focus on whether Pelosi is considering adding that measure to her reconciliation bill. While the House passed a public plan in its initial legislation, the White House has made it clear they don't want it in the final package. But Green and allied groups are mounting a campaign pressuring her to take Durbin's bait. PCCC, Democracy for America and Credo launched a campaign on Friday targeting the speaker with online ads and phone calls.
"The fate of the public option is now in Nancy Pelosi's hands," read a joint statement from the three groups. "The votes and the leadership are there in the Senate, and the public option will live or die based on Nancy Pelosi's next moves. She's been a hero on this issue in the past, and we hope that she steps up at this historic moment."
Regular profiles in courage, these guys are, particularly considering that the public option has remained one of the most popular pieces of the hcr debate throughout all of these months, at least everywhere but in Congress. There actually can be amendments to the reconciliation fix, though admittedly it'd be a big headache to have to take it back to the House for yet another "conference" on the changes.
Bernie Sanders has said he'll offer the amendment if it's not included in the package. He will likely get his chance. Here's the latest from Pelosi: "We had it; we wanted it," Pelosi said. "It’s not in reconciliation." She added: "We’re talking about something that’s not going to be part of the legislation."
Update: Note that the timing of whether Pelosi made the statement before or after Durbin said he would whip for the public option--and whatever else--was in the House package. Note particularly this part of the statement:
"I'm quite sad that a public option isn't in there." Pelosi added. "But it isn't a case of it's not in there because the Senate is whipping against it. It's not in there because they don't have the votes to have it in there."
If Durbin will whip it if it's in there, then Pelosi's declaring it gone might have come too soon.