Reid Spokesman Shoots Down Report That He’s Nixing Public Option
A spokesman for Harry Reid is aggressively shooting down this morning’s Times report that Reid has decided not to include a public option in the bill that will ultimately be voted on by the full Senate.
The Times quoted senior Senate aides — though not necessarily from Reid’s office — claiming that the health care bill he creates by merging the bills created by two key committees won’t ultimately have a public option in it.
But Reid spokesman Rodell Mollineau strongly disputed the story, saying there had been no decision and indeed that the process wouldn’t permit for a decision to have been made already.
“It would be wildly speculative of me to say that has been predetermined,” Mollineau told me in an interview.
Mollineau pointed out that Senators Chuck Schumer and Jay Rockefeller will introduce a public option amendment to the Finance Committee version of the bill tomorrow. While Senate insiders don’t expect it to pass, Mollineau noted that deciding in advance that the final version won’t have a public option would needlessly prejudice Senators against tomorrow’s amendment.
Mollineau also reiterated that it would be foolish to declare in advance that the public option is dead in advance of negotiations over the final bill. He said that once the Finance Committee bill is done, Reid will sit down with at least one high level White House official, and with Senators Tom Harkin and Chris Dodd, the leading champions of the bill from the other Senate committee, to hammer out a final product.
“It would be wildly speculative of me to say what is going to be in that bill,” Mollineau said. “Right now, we don’t know.” Asked when we will know, Mollineau said: “We’ll have a better idea by the end of the week.”
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No. Really?
Are we going to go back and forth on this all day again?
*sigh*
Greg, There. You got played by the msm… again. Ever heard of the phrase “with a pinch of salt”. That’s the very raison d’être of the blogs, Greg.
Heard Harkin on NPR yesterday and he was adamant that the combined bill would include the public option. However, he very carefully failed to define its structure. I’m not sure if this leaves the notion of a triggered public option on the table. Combine this with Reid calling the idea of a triggered public option a doggone good idea, and the cw being that the amendments don’t pass, and I think you are likely looking at one cmte bill with a public option, one cmte bill with co-ops, and perhaps a combined Senate bill with a triggered public option.
NEXT. *sigh*
and sbj beavers away at reading everyone’s mind.
I’m done speculating, I’ll wait and see how it all proceeds through the Senate at the same time I am supporting a strong public option and pressuring our pols to go in that direction.
“I’m done speculating,”
How many times now have we gone back and forth? I’m with you – I’m done speculating. I know what I think, and I think Chuck Schumer is awfully confident about public option. But I’m still waiting…
This is another of example of why blogs get such a bad name.
Last week, Plumline reported on a doctored document that Politco took from a known Republican spin doctor, and published, without taking the time to confirm if it were factual.
Now we have Plumline rushing to post a claim about Senator
Reid, from an anonymous source, without having first gotten Senator Reid’s side of the story.
Very shoddy journalism, that gives blogs a bad name, and also spreads falsehoods like wildfire.
How dare Harry Reid even insinuate the possibility of a no public option bill!
You got a problem with that, tena? Am I violating some board rule? Haven’t you been consistently “beavering away” at reading the minds of the supreme court? Sheesh!
“What’s more, the president’s approval rating — and particularly his approval on health care reform — has started to rise. And in what could be a critical development, the latest polls are showing a growing number of Americans beginning to credit the President’s stimulus package with helping to revive the economy.’
FINALLY. And with absolutely no help at all from the so called alternative media – the blogs that have been dumping all over Obama on the stimulus from the start. Thank god the rest of the country has better sense than online liberals.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/
@Greg
“…Mollineau points out that deciding in advance that the final version won’t have a public option would needlessly prejudice Senators against tomorrow’s amendment.”
Congrats – that’s the EXACT reason this story got printed today. They aren’t
Seriously Greg, I have to agree with amk on this one. You’re a smart guy and seem to have a decent grasp of Poltics…but this was a pretty blatant attempt to pull the CW to “public option is already dead” and kill the amendments. You, and others, lose a bit of credibility every time you get duped like this.
I too am willing to wait but, I’m sick of all this back and forth. By the end of the week we’ll also know who’s likely to get their asses kicked out of office. I personally hope that Reid gets shown the door – strong public option or not! He’s a weak Majority Leader and NEEDS GO!
Sorry, that’s NEEDS TO GO!
It strikes me that it’s always *an aide* who denies the no-public-option report, leaving the politician in question plenty of wiggle room.
Harry Reid; Majority Leader!
There is an Oxymoron, for you.
BBQ, and amk, drawing attention to the Times’ reporting in the first post is one reason why Reid’s office denied it in the second…seems obvious, given Reid’s track record, that these claims should be aired out. Only good can come of that.
Greg, will you or (the frigging times for that matter) take to task whoever was that frigging aide who started that rumor ? Aren’t you all suppposed to push for transparency at DC instead of the usual spins and lies? Shouldn’t you be asking that boneless wonder of harry reed to condemn times for smearing his name with false news ?
This just in.
An Anonymous Source has just informed us, that the NY Times Anonomous source, on the Harry Reid store, is not to be trusted.
We plan to follow up on this further with our Anonymous Source, from here at:
The Judith Miller Institute Of Journalism By Dummies.
Well, at least Reid’s office was quick to push back. I agree that this is a non-story on the substance of it, but it may be an indicator that Reid is growing more sensitive to his party’s demand and the faltering support in his base.
Paul W – Actually, I think senators made up their minds a long time ago. Everything else has been sausage-making and keeping things close to their vests.
Look – we came very close in 94 and lost. We’ve been trying to do this for over 80 years. Personally, I think care was called for from the start and I think carefulness has been the operative idea all along.
Back to the Important Macro Issue, at hand.
Health Care Reform, and the need for a Robust Health Care Reform.
President Obama said that A Public Option would be funded by premiums collected from it’s members, and would not be given any government funding.
That being the case: Then why on earth should the Private Health Insurance Racketeers, be slated to get $900 Billions in Federal subsidies.
Why are the Teabaggers silent on that massive tax handout to the Private Insurance death panel operators, who also skim off close to thirty percent off the top.
Do the math. Thirty percent of $900 Billions, in tax payers’ money, comes out to $270 Billion in Tax payers dollars, to enrich the Insurance Robber Barons.
Where is the outrage about that. We sure could cover a lot of the unisured with that $270 Billion, that Max Baucus wants to squander on Insurance Fat Cats.
Agree with general tenor of commenters. I will wait to see what comes out of the Senate and the Democratic side in draft before I chip in. I am fed up with these anonymous aides (more addleheads, I think) and their MSM concern trolls.
Greg, sounds lame. Your last blog post pretty much seemed to swallow what times had to offer by way of cw.
OT – reuters reports
U.S. antitrust enforcers plan to revamp merger guidelines, amid expectations that the Obama administration will give corporate combinations a tougher review.
“The 1992 guidelines explicitly stated that they would be revised from time to time,” Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz said on Tuesday at a conference at the Georgetown University Law Center. “We think the time has come to do that.”
The FTC and Justice Department share the job of ensuring that mergers do not violate antitrust law.
The corporate community has been bracing for the Obama administration to be tougher than its Republican predecessor in assessing mergers and the actions of companies that dominate their markets.
http://www.reuters.com/article/governmentFilingsNews/idUSN2235744720090922
Boy, is that gonna explode the wingers’ collective heads ?
Somehow I missed this. Not only does Reid call a triggered public option a doggone good idea, but President Clinton likes it?
“Now, the one Republican who’s come up with a good idea is Senator Snowe. She deserves a lot of credit for saying when we did this Medicare prescription drug bill, instead of giving the government the power to negotiate for lower prices we gave the drug companies a chance to offer them, but we held the power in reserve. And if there was any state in America where there was no competition, you could do it. So let’s do that for health care. That’s a good idea. That’s, that’s the kind of debate the country needs, and I hope that the Republicans will come forward with it. These…”
The reason that you get to point out this fondness for halfway options is they actually represent a compromise. If you are trying to wheedle out real alternatives to what your side thinks then you want something like a trigger on the table because there is a conceivable way that a trigger would put pressure on insurance companies to shape up. It looks especially reasonable when compared to the GOP refusal to put forth their own plan, cries to start all over despite agreeing on 80% of the proposals at hand, or yelling at the President during a joint session of Congress.
“U.S. antitrust enforcers plan to revamp merger guidelines, amid expectations that the Obama administration will give corporate combinations a tougher review.”
I have just died and gone to heaven! (wait a minute, where’s Pac? He’s supposed to be holding down my table in the Giant Club in the Sky…)
Seriously – here come the regulations boys and girls! I have been hoping with all my might that the anti-trust div. of the DOJ would come back to life.
I love this president.
I am completely with Greg on this, and I strongly compliment him. The fact is that Greg’s source was NOT an anonymous aide. Greg’s source was the New York Times. So he’s not chasing a “groundless rumor” here. He’s chasing a legitimate news report that came into the room with considerable prima facie credibility.
And Greg’s reaction and follow-up has now resulted in Reid’s office committing his boss to NO DECISION until after we see how Carper and Nelson, the two blue-state Dems on the committee who have NOT supported the public option, will vote on Tuesday. The issue has officially been reopened by EVERY ONE now. So I, for one, thank Greg, and I think so should we all!
Greg: drawing attention to the Times’ reporting in the first post is one reason why Reid’s office denied it
And if you had called Reid’s office to confirm to begin with, you wouldn’t have been used in the first place.
Is it really so difficult to think: “Hmm, NYT quotes anon source that I think may be Reid aide. Maybe I should call first and check before I just go ahead and post and help the MSM get rid of the public option.”
Converse:
Sorry, it doesn’t work that way. As soon as I saw the story in the Times this morning I DID call Reid’s office. No one of any stature had anything to say about it, no comment, no referral to a health care aide, no spokesperson, nothing. All I got were some vague statements to the effect that Reid had not SAID anything like that, which of course was never what I asked about or what had been claimed.
But when Greg called he got through to Reid’s spokesman himself and received something definitive. It was because Greg expressed concern, both publicly on this blog and in person to Reid’s spokesman, that Reid’s office felt compelled to commit to NO DECISION until after the Finance Committee finishes its business. Without Greg making some noise, both here and directly with Reid’s office,
NO CLARIFICATION OR DENIAL FROM REID WOULD HAVE BEEN FORTHCOMING.
I happen to know this because I actually tried to get one.
That is why Greg did the right thing and why we owe him our thanks. I hope he keeps right on holding our elected leaders’ feet to the fire. He’s fighting the good fight, and good on him.
Excuse, did you withhold a quote, or something? If not, there was no denial. All he did was give reasons why someone’s mind should not be made up at this point. A non denial denial.
Tena, I’ll believe those robust anti trust regulations when I see them. Just like the robust financial regulations. Just like closing Guantanamo (without simply shifting all the illegal detainees elsewhere). Just like ending unconstitutional surveillance. Just like less secrecy in the executive branch. Just like DADT. Just liek getting out or Iraq. Ad nauseum …