As readers are well aware, the line of the day is that the emerging public option compromise in the Senate can’t and won’t be finalized until the Congressional Budget Office weighs in on the cost.
That raises the question of whether the negotiators thought the ideas sent to CBO–Medicare buy-in etc.–were worthy on the merits. I asked Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE), whose objections to the public option helped lead to the new plan being discussed, whether he would have a problem with any of the options even if the CBO give them a passing grade.
“I’m not aware of anything that was raising serious objections about it, I think it was about, ‘Well, that sounds okay, let’s see how it scores,'” Nelson said.
That’s likely to quiet some heartburn among leading Democrats, who really need this new initiative to succeed, so they can get 60 votes to pass the bill. Now let’s wait for CBO.