As everyone gathers around the corpse of the public option, the debate heats up about how much Obama fought to keep it alive.
Some argue that Congress is responsible for legislation. If they can’t pass the bill with the public option, how can you blame Obama for that?
To me it seems obvious that Obama never really cared if the public option survived. He may have wanted it, but he was never invested in seeing it survive.
How can I say this? Because we can compare the public option something that Obama DOES want to see survive.
Over in the debate on the overhaul of financial regulations, the Consumer Financial Protection Agency has many similarities to the public option in health care. It requires a new institution that industry hates, people are fighting tooth and nail to kill it, and the left loves it.
So how does Obama talk about Consumer Financial Protection Agency?
Obama sends consumer-protection bill to Congress
President Obama, pushing a key part of his overhaul of financial regulations, sent to Congress a draft bill that would create the Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA), which he said would better protect Americans from unscrupulous practices and make financial products easier to understand.
Under the 152-page bill released Tuesday, the new agency would bring together what the administration called the "fragmented" system of responsibility for consumer protection.
Wait, what? What? Obama sent a draft bill to Congress?
Clearly it’s not the case that Obama would never get involved with the job of the legislature, as some of those who argue about the public option. He will get involved in some cases.
Now how did Obama talk about health care reform?
He always talked about his three principles of (1) lowering costs (2) guaranteeing choice and (3) ensuring coverage for all.
Yes, he would often say that he was in favor of a public option, but in the next breath he would say that it wasn’t crucial.
"All I'm saying is, though, that the public option, whether we have it or we don't have it, is not the entirety of health care reform," Obama said at a town hall meeting in Grand Junction, Colo. "This is just one sliver of it, one aspect of it."
Link
Notice the difference between the public option and the CFPA? Night and day.
Now maybe Obama never really fought for the public option because he didn't think it would survive Congress, but he doesn't know if the CFPA would survive, but he's using political capital on that by making it a requirement. He never put himself out there for the public option in a similar way.