Despite coverage like that of today’s Daily News, which claims President Obama “flip-flopped” on the public option, Obama has long maintained that while he personally believed that a public option was the best route to ensuring affordable insurance choices, it wasn’t necessarily the only one. Because we have this pesky thing called Congress, Obama doesn’t get to just translate his wishes directly into law, and acknowledging the reality that his personal preference may not have the necessary support in the Senate is not a flip-flop. But regardless, the White House’s willingness to do without the public option is only now being truly scrutinized, and some people taking extra special notice are liberals in the House of Representatives. Yes, the House! We forgot about them, what with their large Democratic margin and general agreeability. But House Democrats are pretty keen on the public option, so much so that 60 of them have signed a letter threatening to vote against any health-care reform the lacks a public option. Congressman Anthony Weiner, meanwhile, claims the number is more like 100. Like we said, so pesky.
Public Option Called Essential [WP]
Liberals revolt over public option [Politico]
