The Public Option - So Popular They Have To Rename It

The public wants the public option, or at least, maybe they will after Nancy Pelosi re-brands it:

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) - A government-sponsored "public option" for health care lives, though it may be more attractive to skeptics if it goes by a different moniker, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday.

In an appearance at a Florida senior center, the Democratic leader referred to the so-called public option as "the consumer option." Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., appeared by Pelosi's side and used the term "competitive option."

Both suggested new terminology might get them past any lingering doubts among the public—or consumers or competitors.

"You'll hear everyone say, 'There's got to be a better name for this,'" Pelosi said. "When people think of the public option, public is being misrepresented, that this is being paid for with their public dollars."

I don't suppose that "Magic Pony Option" got the consideration it deserved.

Dana Milbank explains the Nevada politics behind Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's decision to include a public option in the Senate bill:

The Senate majority leader, after haggling behind closed doors with members of his Democratic caucus, realized that he couldn't cobble together the 60 votes he needed to pass health-care legislation with a government-run health plan. So Reid chose another option: He shut down the private talks, booked the Senate TV studio and went public with his own proposal.

"I've concluded," he told the roomful of cameras and reporters, "that the best way to move forward is to include a public option."

For Reid, it was an admission of the formidable power of liberal interest groups. He had been the target of a petition drive and other forms of pressure to bring the public option to the floor, and Monday's move made him an instant hero on the left. Americans United for Change hailed him for refusing "to buckle in the face of withering pressure from the big insurance companies." MoveOn.org admired his "leadership in standing up to the special interests."

Reid, facing a difficult reelection contest next year at home in Nevada, will need such groups to bring Democrats to the polls if he is to survive. But there were a few problems with the leader's solo move. He shifted the public pressure from himself to half a dozen moderates in his caucus. And he defied the Obama White House, which had hoped to keep a bipartisan patina on health-care reform by maintaining the support of Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine).

Then there was the small matter of lacking the votes to pass the public option. "Do you feel 100 percent sure right now that you have the 60 votes?" CNN's Dana Bash inquired. Reid looked down at the lectern. He looked up at the ceiling. He chuckled. He put his palms together as if in prayer. Then he spoke. "My caucus believes strongly there should be health-care reform" was the non sequitur he offered.

The Times has more.

Comments

[vinman]

best headline of the month, Tom

[bad]

The Public Option - So Popular They Have To Rename It

I wonder how much we paid the "Mad Men" for that little bit of rebranding.....

It's not as if Axlerod needs any more money.

[Appalled]

I wonder if Obama realizes that this move is evidence that his legislative approach to healthcare is seriously not working. It sounds like he has just been openly stiffed by his own majority leader.

Poor Obama. From Hope and Change to Jimmy Carter in a few short months.

[bad]

It sounds like he has just been openly stiffed by his own majority leader.

No worries, Appalled. In a couple of days Obama can trot out his new and improved position prefaced by, "As I've always said..."

[narciso]

It was always going to be thus, Appalled, the man makes Carter look like a genius by comparison. Poor us, who are stuck with him.

[Ignatz]

--I don't suppose that "Magic Pony Option" got the consideration it deserved.--

Nor the "DMV Get There Early and Take a Number Option", the "IRS Friendly and Helpful Customer Service Option", the "Post Office I'm Taking a Short Break to Pop Off a Few Rounds at My Patrons Option" or the "I'm From the Government and I'm Here to Help You Die Option".

[narciso]

"Competitive option," that drives all the other competition out of business, as others\would say,heh, well all they want is a piece of the action.

[Extraneus]

Looks like Reid is throwing in the towel for his 2010 re-election. Best to cozy up to the left in preparation for his next career, then. Surely Podesta can find a nice spot for him.

[ben]

Actually, the polls show approval for the public option is even lower when you leave out the "to compete with the private sector". Since the idea is not to compete at all, but to replace it, it should be left out from any polling and should be asked as "do you favor a public option" period.

Hence the name change. But the new packaging with a "competitive" ribbon should provide more ammunition for cartoonists rather than bringing about converts.

[Neo]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, this is — this is — I mean this is. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m done.

This is .. this is .. pathetic.

[Tully]

No one was buying the Giant Wooden Rabbit, so they decided to rebrand it as a Giant Wooden badger instead.

Branded!
Marked with a coward's shame.
What do you do when you're branded,
Will you fight for your name?

[narciso]

One is reminded of that scene in the Untouchables where they visit the polic academy for recruits for the team, and one cadet stumbles through the answer, leaving
Malone to snark 'there goes the next chief
of police' things haven't changed much in 80 years, in that regard

[narciso]

"We don't need no stinkin's badgers'

[bad]

Stranded!!
On the toilet bowl.
What do do when you're stranded
And you don't have a roll?

There, Tully, an alternative lyric for your tune....

[JPSobel]

The right should start using the term "government option".

[Strawman Cometh]

sorry bad,
After what happened with Jerry's ex-girl friend - "phone therapist" I don't have a square to spare.
Elaine

[Gabriel Sutherland]

The media is going to beat that ABC/WAPO poll that showed 57% support for a so called public option using a carefully crafted question.

There must be other polls about to hit the wires.

[Janet]

Just finished my morning email to my Senators.
Thanks to T.M. for a new line..."No matter what the name is - public option, consumer option, or competitive option - it is a terrible idea..."

Waste, fraud, cronyism, and poor quality is what awaits us with this latest government takeover. Ugh!

[Call a spade a funeral spoon.]

The Public Coercion.
=============

[Charlie (Colorado)]

SUNRISE, FLA - In an attempt to pass mandatory government health care, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has announced she will call the new system, 'beer.' "We need a name with less baggage" stated Pelosi. "People like beer and we want them to like our new federal healthcare system." Inspired by the enthusiastic response to 'beer' from her staff, Pelosi referred to cap-and-trade as 'fun clown time' and card check as 'free sex.'

[Carl Pham]

Fuck, even "public option" is a scurrilous lie. A true option is your cable TV service. If you don't like it, you can not use it and stop paying the bill. That gives you the (true) option to do something else with your money.

In this case, however, you're going to pay for the public "option" where you want to or not, every April 15. The only "option" is that Congress has generously allowed you, if you don't like Government Health Care, to go out and pay a second time for your health care by buying a private health plan. Whooee! Isn't it nice to live in the land o' the free?

This is exactly like the scam of "free" public education. Yep, public school is "free"....er, except for those whomping property and income taxes you paid last year. But, hey, if you don't like public education, you're free to also pay a private school and send your kids there. Tee hee!

[Janet]

Haha Charlie! That's about right!

[clarice]

My husband read the Baucus proposal and blanched. If even one of his employees for whom individual coverage(along with a health savings account and reimbursement for a large portion of uncovered expenses) is provided picks the public subsidy for his family, the fine for the firm would be in the neighborhood of $8ook. Surely you've got to be kidding. Virtually every employer will stop covering his employees and hand them the govt option (or whatever the hell they end up calling it) brochure.

[unɹ puɐ ʇıɥ]

Nancy has me on board.

Yes, I'm that easy.

[Janet]

Clarice over at Am. Thinker LUN
The Whiff of Fascism Becomes a Stench

[interested]

"Options" are of course derivatives. And derivatives are "financial weapons of mass destruction". I thought the Democrats stood strongly against derivatives and options.

[unɹ puɐ ʇıɥ]

But just with health care reform, not card check or cap and trade.

It's not like I pay much for sex now and let's face it, clowns just creep me out.

[Old Lurker]

Good points, Carl...the F word does not improve them.

[Cecil Turner]

Beer? Where? Sign me up!

[Captain Hate]

This is .. this is .. pathetic.

That should be required reading for everybody to see just what was appointed for Bammy's vacant seat (if an empty suit leaves an office, was it ever really filled?). That would be an embarrassing passage for drunk high school students reading the Constitution for the first time much less somebody who was "very close to the — to the Carter administration and had good insights into the workings of the White House and all of those decisions that were being made and how the gatekeepers really sought to filter the information that got to the president." Well done, Illinois.

[MarkJ]

Renaming the "public option?"

Cracka, please! It's like renaming Auschwitz as a "Jewish relocation center."

[fdcol63]

NEWSFLASH!

The Democratic Party, in a bid to change the public's negative opinion of "death", will pass legislation mandating that "death" now be called "spiritual continuation".

George Orwell could not be reached for comment. Sources say that he may, indeed, have died.

[sbw]

Ponder, for a moment, that Obama's senate replacement was a step up.

[unɹ puɐ ʇıɥ]

Ouch, sbw. Bullseye.

[MayBee]

A CNN reporter just said Crist was unaware Obama was in his state.

[MisterX]

Given the hostility, I suppose the righties are going to forfeit their Medicare benefits too.

Nah, didn't think so.

[Porchlight]

Given the hostility, I suppose the righties are going to forfeit their Medicare benefits too.

Nah, didn't think so.

This is like the moronic chickenhawk argument. If you aren't willing to forfeit the Medicare benefits you paid for your entire working life, you can't possibly argue that Medicare is chock full of fraud and waste and is about to go broke.

So MisterX, does a person have to cancel their private insurance policy in order to argue that the insurance companies are vultures feeding on the sick? Do you have to stop seeing doctors in order to argue that all they want to do is take out tonsils and charge astronomical rates for amputations? Come on, put your money where your mouth is.

[Fresh Air]

Ponder, for a moment, that Obama's senate replacement was a step up.

Well, Senator Tombstone is certainly more qualified.

[bgates]

I suppose the righties are going to forfeit their Medicare benefits too.

"Forfeit" isn't quite the right word, since it implies a choice. I doubt I'll ever see any Medicare benefits, since the system will collapse before I'm old enough to use it. Does that count?

[unɹ puɐ ʇıɥ]

MayBee:
A CNN reporter just said Crist was unaware Obama was in his state.

Well, Crist is just d*u*m*b.

Of course Obama is in Florida.

He's a golf nut.

[bgates]

I thought Crist was Obama.

We're not supposed to use the "h" in Obama's name, right? And when you take that out, what's left is "C_rist".

[Fresh Air]

OT, another commie dupe in the Milhouse, this one named "Rocco."

From PowerLine:

Rocco Landesman is President Obama's handpicked chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. Last week he gave the keynote addressto the 2009 Grantmakers in the Arts Conference. Those of us concerned about the politicization of life and art in the Age of Obama will not be consoled by a reading of Landesman's speech...:

This is the first president that actually writes his own books since Teddy Roosevelt and arguably the first to write them really well since Lincoln. If you accept the premise, and I do, that the United States is the most powerful country in the world, then Barack Obama Bill Ayers is the most powerful writer since Julius Caesar. That has to be good for American CPUSA artists.

[Frau Schnitzel]

" Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m done."
Neo- Porky Pig was a *professional* and got it right.

Captain, IIRC the Land of Lincoln is really the Land of Crook County.

[Extraneus]

off

[bad]

I suppose the righties are going to forfeit their Medicare benefits too.

You need to refer to yourself as "MasterX" to more properly represent your statement.

[Major Wood]

Yippee, Lieberman to filibuster this pig of a bill.

[Extraneus]

About time he slid knife in.

[peter]

Presidebt, scratch that, Presentdent Obama, can rest assured now that Professor Irwin Corey is on his side. LUN

[clarice]

Major beat me to it..I think we can now start planning to sit shiva for this turkey.

[megapotamus]

Harry Reid drops his legislative efforts, books the Senate studio and does a promo? Who does this doof think he is, Barack Obama? Looks like this big-headed nonesense is contagious.

[glasater]

I think we can now start planning to sit shiva for this turkey.

Beautiful Clarice.....

However, could they be going for the nuke option?

[cathyf]

Ponder, for a moment, that Obama's senate replacement was a step up.

Not only that, but Burris was one of the best choices among Democrats in the state. He's as close as Chicago Dems get to honest and competent...

[clarice]

glasater, I always will sleep with one eye open and my ears up with this administration, but I believe they are now left to picking one damn thing to reform (except for tort reform) that they can pass and call it a day..I don't think they'll find it.

[Major Wood]

Reid knows this bill with public option is a dead (including with opt in option). Figuring he had nothing to lose, he is pushing it with the public option now to make the far left happy. Then he figures he can say he tried but the evil Republicans killed it with filibuster. Lieberman gives some cover to Dems in Red States and RINOs if they want to say no to this bill.

Next up, bill with no public option, no opt in/out.

[bad]

I reserve the right to opt out of paying the extra costs and taxes this turkey will trigger.

[Porchlight]

Next up, bill with no public option, no opt in/out.

Major,

Will leftier dems revolt if the public option is stripped and there's no trigger?

[bad]

Not for long, Porch. Not as long as the carrot of "incremental advances" continues to be dangled.

[Porchlight]

That's what I think, too, bad. But their lefty base will howl, and the noise may confuse them and cause them to balk, even if just for the moment. At this point buying time is crucial.

[Major Wood]

No public option Lefty revolt? Who knows? We can only hope. Unless BO can convince them it is a start and public option will be addressed again later.

[daddy]

What Does Sitting Shiva Mean?

"Sitting shiva or shi’vah (the Hebrew word for seven) is part of the Jewish practice of mourning for a very close relative who has died. Relatives for whom you would sit shiva include parents, children, spouses or siblings. Directly upon burial of the deceased, those who observe this custom begin a seven-day period of sitting shiva to honor the massive loss that has occurred. People usually sit shiva in their own homes with all direct family members present when possible."

Thanks for the continuing education folks.

[daddy]

For anyone wondering, I linked that "Sitting Shiva" bit above because I was confused trying to figure out how ">http://www.thebuddhagarden.com/shiva.htm#at"> Shiva, The Hindu God of Destruction, fit into this thread, unless it had to do with destroying our current public health care system.

[clarice]

My fault. I should have explained.

[Don Imus]

Not at all Clarice.

I love how you guys force me to educate myself. This way I'll definitely remember it. And guess what, after meeting DrJ, my Clarice number is 2!