Daschle Admits Public Option Was Never Option & Walks it Back

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Tuesday October 05, 2010 · 2:55 PM PDT

2010/10/05 · 14:55

Update: The discussion has been lively but please understand, Daschle is part of the problem. GOTV is paramount to make sure people like him and corporations realize that we, the people, are the only "shareholders" that count. Please do what you can so we can keep people like Daschle away from the halls of power. And be sure to donate what you can: Orange to Blue

So there's a report at TPM detailing an interview Tom Daschle had with some reporter. The crux of the tale is that he admitted that the public option was not "on the table" due to the concerns of the hospital associations and the insurance carriers. Well, isn't that something. There's more...of course...

It was taken off the table as a result of the understanding that people had with the hospital association, with the insurance (AHIP), and others," Daschle told Wonk Room's Igor Volsky. "I mean I think that part of the whole effort was based on a premise. That premise was, you had to have the stakeholders in the room and at the table. Lessons learned in past efforts is that without the stakeholders' active support rather than active opposition, it's almost impossible to get this job done. They wanted to keep those stakeholders in the room and [the public option] was the price some thought they had to pay."

The article goes on to say that Daschle walked the entire statement back (color me surprised) and informed TPM that the public option was taken out of contention when they couldn't get the senate votes. The walkback:

"In describing some of the challenges to passage of the public option in the health reform bill, I did not mean to suggest in any way that the President was not committed to it," Daschle emails. "The President fought for the public option just as he did for affordable health care for all Americans. The public option was dropped only when it was no longer viable in Congress, not as a result of any deal cut by the White House."

I just want to thank Mr. Daschle for reminding me how pissed off I am at this administration and congress for not including the Public Option in the Health Insurance Reform (because it is not really Health Care Reform). Anyway, I will continue my GOTV for these ungrateful dems but there will be a reckoning...

Here's the article from TPM

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