Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA)–ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee–says President Obama’s insistence on a public option might actually be a public show.
“It would have been good if he had said to the entire country what he said to me privately, that he would look to alternatives,” Grassley said. “We have a very good alternative by going with cooperatives.”
Critics are suspicious of the cooperative idea in general, but particularly of the sort Grassley has proposed. And since the committee’s chairman Max Baucus seems insistent upon winning Grassley over, he is perhaps the greatest obstacle to the creation of a public health insurance option. Grassley does say, however, that the chances of passing health care reform legislation of some sort by the end of the year remain quite high.
