Did Rahm Emanuel privately signal to Democratic Senators that the White House is prepared to drop the public insurance option from health care reform in order to get a bill passed? Two Dem Senators now say Emanuel is signaling exactly that:
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel met last night at the U.S. Capitol with Senate Democrats and told them Obama is “open to alternatives” to a new government insurance program in order to get legislation overhauling the health-care system to his desk, said Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota.
“His message was, it’s critical that you do this,” Conrad said.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus of Montana said Emanuel urged the senators to seek Republican support and didn’t discourage them from pursuing the use of non-profit cooperatives, an idea Conrad has proposed.
That last line is key: The White House may be signaling that getting a public option is less important than winning bipartisan support. This would undercut Dems who want to bypass the GOP, arguing that bipartisanship as an end in itself isn’t as important as a public option.
We know what kind of sleazebucket Rahm Emanuel is. But is he really running the show, or are Barack Obama's "straddlling two worlds" issues going to be as much of an albatross around his neck in terms of policy as George W. Bush's daddy issues were around his? At what point does Barack Obama owe the people he serves more than he owes a Republican party that has made very clear that compromise is out of the question?
I knew we weren't going to get a progressive dreamboat in Barack Obama. All the screeching on the part of the right never once disguised the fact that Barack Obama is, and always has been, a DLC centrist. But you would think that 75% approval of a public option would be enough political cover -- unless he really DOES want to shovel a bunch of government cash into the pockets of insurance company executives.
I'm not convinced he doesn't.
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