There’ve been a number of conflicting reports about the fate of the Public Option this morning, especially in the House. We just had our morning editorial meeting. And I wanted to give you a quick read on what the confusion seems to be about.
The issue really doesn’t seem to be whether the House thinks it can pass a Public Option. The confusion and conflicting reports seem to stem from not distinguishing between two versions of the Public Option that most TPM Readers are probably already familiar with — namely, a Public Option like that advanced by Sen. Schumer and the more turbo-version proposed by Sen. Rockefeller.
Basically, it’s not clear the House really has the votes for a Rocky-style Public Option. That’s where this morning’s Politico piece may be on solid ground — because Pelosi, or at least her office, had appeared to be saying they had that locked. But that doesn’t mean the Public Option is dead in the House because it seems pretty clear they do have the votes for Schumer-style Public Option. And that latter, critical point was lost in this morning’s headlines.
